Rowley Regis was once a small ancient village on the top of a very high hill in South Staffordshire, now apparently absorbed seamlessly into the enveloping sprawl of the West Midlands conurbation. It has had several other municipal designations due to local Government re-organisations in the last century but historically, it was in South Staffordshire – that’s what it said on my school exercise books, so I know! The other, less defined, description is that Rowley Regis was in the Black Country, that nebulous area of industry, metal working, mining, quarrying and sheer hard work and where probably most of the population lived in what we would think of now as poverty.
Although Rowley Regis is an interesting name – yes, at one time, part of it was held by the King, possibly as a hunting area – by the 19th century the village was of no particular note, the main industries in and around the village were quarrying the very hard ‘Rowley Rag’ stone from various quarries on the hill, mining and, above all, in Rowley itself, wrought iron hand nail making which was mostly carried out in small ‘shops’ at the back of houses, and involved whole families, men, women and children from about the age of six. The metal working skills of the local people and the plentiful supplies of the raw materials required meant that, as the Industrial Revolution progressed, hand nail and chain making fell into history and the metal working and myriad engineering skills gave rise to a vast landscape of heavy and polluting industry, canals, mines and brickworks.
I am a Rowley girl. I was born there, grew up and was educated there and lived there until I was eighteen. My parents and grandparents and many of their forebears were born there too and lived out their lives there. My mother told me stories about the area when I was growing up and I started my family history research in about 1980 and have been working on it ever since.
Retired after many years working in local government and now living in the West Country, during the first Covid lockdown I volunteered to transcribe parish registers at home from photographs for FreeREG, for Rowley Regis and Blackheath, the adjacent town which developed just down the road in the mid 19th Century, after the glebe lands belonging to the church were sold. This has included many non-conformist registers, which have never been available online previously.
Very quickly I noticed that many of the family names in those registers were familiar although some of them I had not come across for many years, since I moved away. But I had been at chapel and school with those names! It was also apparent from the Registers and from the various censuses that as well as the village proper, there were a number of hamlets on the edge of the village, some large and some small, and that families tended to stay within these hamlets or nearby. They appear to have been close-knit little communities. Some of my ancestors seemed to stay very firmly in and around the hamlets of Perry’s Lake, Gadds Green, Tipperty Green and Turners Hill, for example, which were very small settlements barely a mile from the village church and within half a mile of each other. Gradually as houses were built, new roads opened, transport improved and development spread, addresses were formalised and house numbers began to appear in the parish registers and censuses and some of the old names for the hamlets became less significant.
There is a very active and informative Facebook page about memories of Rowley Regis and Blackheath, the town. Recently one person asked on the Facebook page where Gadds Green was, because Poppy memorials were being placed near the homes of soldiers who had died in the First World War and one of those had come from Gadds Green. She couldn’t find any trace of it. I had not realised until then that quarrying had completely obliterated Gadds Green, and much of Perry’s Lake and the houses on Turners Hill – they only existed now on old maps. Other local names do not even appear on maps – there has been some animated discussion on the page about where a place called ‘Finger-i-the-hole’ was and most local people will never have heard of Blackberry Town, which appears in the 1841 census.
Several of the local historians using the page were able to tell the Facebook enquirer where Gadds Green had been. But it seemed a pity to me that these lost hamlets, home to so many of my ancestors, have not only physically disappeared but are now fading from local memory. Through my various researches and transcribing church registers and censuses, I have gathered quite a lot of information about these places, who lived there, who ran the shops and pubs, where people worked and worshipped and who married who.
So I have decided to create a One Place Study about these ‘lost hamlets’. My study will initially concentrate on the hamlets of Perry’s Lake, Gadd’s Green and Turner’s Hill, clustered to the North-West of the village centre, during the period 1840-1921, principally looking initially at censuses, parish registers , maps and what these can tell us about the people who lived there. The people and their lives are my main interest. I suspect that it will expand both geographically and in time period as particular information and resources come to hand. I will be posting to this site with new posts about aspects of life in the hamlets and will add maps and photographs in due course.
And by starting a One Place Study, now registered with the Society for One Place Studies, hopefully information about the people who lived in those ‘lost hamlets’ and in due course, others of the ‘lost hamlets’ can be preserved in a study where other people can also contribute their knowledge to it and where later researchers can find the answer to ‘Where was Gadd’s Green?’.
Of Edward’s children, I will look in this piece at Hannah, the eldest daughter and her family, many of whom were – at least initially – involved in milling and associated trades. The other children will be the subject of later posts.
Hannah Alsop (1801-1870)
Hannah was baptised at St Giles on 11 October 1801. On 21 June 1824 she married Isaac Mallin at Clent and they moved to Dudley Port where Isaac ran a grocer’s shop and also worked as a Corn Factor for the rest of his life. At the time of the marriage they were both described as ‘of Rowley Regis’.
Apologies for the poor quality of this picture. This image, uploaded by D Bickley (to whom copyright presumably belongs) is believed to show the grocer and corn factor’s premises at 8 Dudley Port, home of Isaac and Hannah Mallin. The middle building with the red roof is the premises in question and this also shows numerous outbuildings at the rear where presumably Isaac stored the corn and other materials he dealt with.
The Mallin family
Isaac Mallin, son of William Mallin and Ann nee Woodhouse, was born in 1800 at Portway where several Mallin families were farming in the 1841 Census.
The Mallin/Mallen family had many connections on the Oldbury/Portway/Tividale side of Rowley, and in the Brades area. They first appear in the Rowley Parish Registers in 1718 when Elizabeth, daughter of William Mallin was baptised at St Giles and recur frequently after that, using the names Abraham, William and Isaac repeatedly in all branches of the family which adds considerably to the task of sorting out who was who! They were business people, like the Alsops, mainly farmers, with at least three Mallin families listed separately in Portway in the 1841 Census but they also worked in associated trades and generally married into families in associated trades. Isaac and at least one of his sons became grocers and Corn Factors who would have many dealings with Millers. Others became Millers or worked in jobs associated with milling in some way.
I was also interested to note that Hannah’s maternal grandparents were Mallins, so she may have been related to her husband although I have not pursued further research on this line yet. It appears from baptismal records that Hannah’s maternal grandparents lived in Cakemore, so came under the parish of Halesowen, which at this time included Oldbury and certainly there were numerous Mallins still in this area in the 1800s so again there is this association with the Cakemore/Brades area.
The Mallin family – or at least some them – were, by the standards of most local families I have studied so far, well-to-do. A report of the death in 1838 of Mr Abraham Mallin of Tividale, aged 81, notes that he was formerly of Brades Hall and a report of a burglary in 1871 at the home of another Abraham Mallin of Oldbury lists some of the items stole on Christmas Day 1870. These included “six silver teaspoons, two silver table spoons and a pair of silver sugar tongs; two old Guineas; three gold dress rings; a silver pin; two pairs of gold ear-rings; a gold locket and a brooch.” This implies a level of living standards and prosperity quite outside the experience of most ordinary Hamlet folk, I suspect!
Isaac and Hannah had nine children – John (1824-1880), Ann Eliza (1831-1904), Joseph (1833-1912), Elizabeth Emma (1833-1897), Isaac (1835-1852), Abraham (1836-1902), Edward James (1838-1922), Hannah Alsop (1841-1918) and Mary Jane (1844-1910). The ties with Rowley Regis and the Mill remained close. The first seven children were baptised at Rowley, the last two at Tipton. Several of the boys learned milling skills, presumably from their grandfather so must have worked with him at the windmill.
Hannah died in 1870, aged 68 and was buried at St Giles, Rowley. Isaac died in 1885, aged 84, of Dudley Port and was also buried at St Giles, on 24 March 1885. His Will was proved in June of that year and his son Joseph and two of his sons in law were executors. His estate seems relatively modest, after his long business life – £286. 6s. 8d – but perhaps he had distributed some of his assets before he died.
Isaac and Hannah (nee Alsop) Mallin’s children
John Mallin (1824-1880)
John was baptised at Rowley Regis on 21 November 1824, the family abode was shown as ‘Windmill’ and he later gave his place of birth as Rowley Regis, later children of the couple gave their place of birth as Dudley Port or Tipton. In the 1841 Census John was listed at Portway, living with his paternal grandparents William and Ann Mallin, his occupation was shown as Male Servant. Also listed is an Elizabeth Mallin, aged 18, who I suspect was the Elizabeth Mallin, illegitimate daughter of Rebekah Mallin of Portway who had been baptised on 25 December 1822 so another grandchild. So he was effectively an agricultural labourer for his grandfather, not an uncommon situation in those days which gave occupation and training, though possibly not much pay!
In the 1851 Census John was living at Dudley Road, Tividale as Head of his household and was a provision dealer. His sisters Elizabeth Emma aged 23 and Ann Eliza aged 20 plus his brother Edward James aged 11 were also living with him. His younger siblings were still in Dudley Port with their parents and it seems reasonable to assume that his sisters kept house for him and probably helped in the business. This seems to be a recurring pattern in the family, there are several instances of groups of the children living together away from the family home but working in businesses which may well have been satellites of the main business in Dudley Port.
John married Rebecca Wright , by Licence, at Dudley St Thomas on 19 October 1854. Rebecca’s father was a wine merchant in Dudley so this is another example of business families inter-marrying with other business families. Their son Isaac Henry Mallin was born in the September quarter of 1855 although he was not baptised until 26 December 1858 at Dudley St Thomas. Rebecca Mallin died in the September quarter of 1856, the death notice for her which appeared in the Worcestershire Chronicle describes her as “the beloved wife of John Mallin and the only daughter of Mr H Wright of Dudley”. So Henry’s baptism is well after this date but he is still described in the baptism record as the son of John and Rebecca Mallin, of Dudley Port with no mention of her being deceased. John’s occupation was given in the baptism record as a Miller.
In late 1855/early 1856 a John Mallin, presumably this John Mallin, as Miller of Rowley Regis, was declared bankrupt. There is just one newspaper notice that I can find which names Joseph Mallin of Rowley Regis, a Miller as bankrupt, on exactly the same date as John, but no mention of John in that notice. Had they been partners in business I would have expected both of their names to appear. But this is the only one of numerous notices appearing in the press about this bankruptcy to name Joseph, all of the others only name John. Also, by 1861 Joseph was employed by the New Union Mill in Ladywood Birmingham, as Company Secretary, a position he held for several decades. I do not think that the company could have employed a bankrupt in this position of trust, so I am inclined to think that this one notice was an error.
There was also one Press advertisement in November 1860 for the Rowley Flour Mill to be let at a low rent. It included outbuildings and two dwelling houses. This states that ‘the Mill consists of 18-horse condensing engine, driving three pairs of French Stones, with Dressing, Bolting and Smutting machines, Bean Mill, etc all in excellent repair’. So it sounds as though someone had invested money in equipment, perhaps this debt had led to the bankruptcy. Enquiries were directed to Isaac Mallin, Corn Factor at Dudley or Joseph Mallin at the New Union Mill, Birmingham. This was just a couple of months after the death of Edward Alsop who had perhaps continued milling until his death and it may already have been known that John would not be returning from the USA.
It appears that John Mallin moved soon after his bankruptcy to the USA, as he appears in a Street Directory in Chicago in 1867 as a Miller and in the 1870 Census in Chicago, as a Miller. Trees on Ancestry also suggest that a John Mallin in New York in the 1860 census was also him but that John Mallin gave his place of birth as Canada so would not seem to be the same person. Living with him in Chicago in 1870 is a lady who appears to be his wife Mary and four children, Louisa aged 21, Andrew, aged 16, Jane aged 14 and Ada aged 12 who were presumably Mary’s children from a previous marriage as John was in England at the time of their births, although they appear to have adopted his surname. It is unclear when John died.
John’s son Isaac Henry remained in England for a period. He was living with his Mallin grandfather and two of his aunts at Dudley Port in 1871 but he then also moved to the USA. A Voter registration form dated 1892, shows him living in Mill Avenue, having been in the Precinct for one year, the County for 12 years and the state for 16 years. Isaac became a naturalised citizen and later married and remained in the USA until his death in Chicago in 1921.
I have found John’s parents Isaac and Hannah Mallin in every census during their lives apart from 1861 when I cannot find either of them anywhere. They were at 8 Dudley Port at the shop in censuses before and after that but in 1861 their son Edward James was there with his two younger sisters, with Hannah described as a grocer. They do not appear to be with any of their other children so far as I can see or anywhere else in the country. Then in the next census they are back in Dudley Port so they had not retired. I wonder whether they had gone to visit their eldest son John the USA. I don’t suppose I shall never know! I cannot find them on any passenger lists but those are not exhaustive so it seems possible that they had gone to visit their eldest son.
So it appears that John and his descendants settled in the USA and they appear not to have returned to the UK.
Ann Eliza Mallin (1831-1904)
Ann Eliza was born in about 1831 in Dudley Port. I have not found her baptism. She was living in Dudley Port with her parents in 1841 and in Tividale with her brother John in 1851. By 1861 she was living with her brother Joseph at the Union Flour Mill in Ladywood, Birmingham where he was the Company Secretary for many years. After Joseph’s marriage Annie Eliza moved back to Dudley Port and was living with her father in the 1871 and 1881 Censuses. By 1891 she was back in Aston, housekeeping for her brother Joseph again, he was a widower by this time but had his seven children living with him, ranging in age from 24 to 10. By 1901, Joseph, by now aged 68, had taken up a new occupation of Cycle Fitter and Annie was still living with him in Bolton Road, Aston, sharing housekeeping duties with her niece Lucy.
Annie died on 5 March 1904 at 18 Dawson Street, Small Heath, Birmingham, still living with her brother Joseph and was buried at Yardley Cemetery. She had never married but appears to have spent her whole life housekeeping for members of her family.
JosephMallin (1832-1912)
Joseph was born in 1832 and baptised at Rowley Regis on 23 September 1832, his parent’s abode given as Dudley Port and his father’s occupation as a grocer. In 1841 he was with his parents and siblings at the grocer’s shop in Dudley Port, aged 8. In 1851, he was living at Wombourne with the miller there and his occupation was also given as a Miller, so clearly more than one of the Mallin boys had learned the family trade from their grandfather Alsop. By 1861, Joseph was living in a company house in Ladywood, Birmingham where he was Company Secretary and Clerk to the Union Flour Mill. His sister Annie Eliza was also with him, as mentioned above, keeping house for him and they had one female servant, aged 15.
The New Union Mill, Birmingham where Joseph worked as Company Secretary for many years. Copyright unknown.
On 14 April 1865, Joseph married Mary Ann Morgan at St Barnabas church, Edgbaston, she was a Birmingham girl, born in Great Barr. They had eight children: Lucy Beatrice Rose (1867), Francis Joseph Edward (1868), Arthur William (1871), Charles Isaac (1872), Walter Herbert (1873), Albert Howard (1874), Charlotte Florence (1879-1879) and Harriet Lilian (1880). Mary Ann died in 1883, aged 41 and was buried at Witton Cemetery, Birmingham. That left him with several young children under ten so it is perhaps not surprising that his sister Annie Eliza moved back to keep house for him, apparently staying for the remainder of her life. Joseph never re-married.
By 1891, at the age of 58, Joseph was living in Stratford Place. Aston, with Annie and all of his surviving children and was described as ‘living on his own means’. All the children aged 16 or more were working, Lucy as a barmaid, Francis as a Warehouseman, Arthur, Charles, Walter and Albert as Clerks and the youngest two – Frederick and Harriet were still scholars.
In 1901, Joseph and Annie were at 120 Bolton Road, Small Heath, Birmingham, and six of the children were still at home, aged from 34 down to 20. Joseph had perhaps seen a business opportunity and had become a Cycle Fitter. Perhaps rotating things still appealed to him, mill wheels, bicycle wheels…
These were not very large houses but some of the houses in Bolton Road were three storeys so this may have been one of those.
In 1911, Joseph, now 77 and a pensioner, was living at 18 Dawson Street, Aston, with his son Frederick who was still unmarried and worked as a traveller in hardware. His sister Annie had also been living there with him until her death in 1904.
Joseph died in March 1912 and, like his sister, was buried at Yardley Cemetery. Most of Joseph’s working life had been involved with mills but that link seems to have been broken after him and none of his offspring seem to have gone into the mill business.
Joseph’s children appear to have remained settled in Birmingham, where they were all born, and not come back to the Tividale/Dudley Port/Rowley Regis area.
Elizabeth Emma Mallin (1833-1897)
Elizabeth Emma was baptised on 27 April 1828 at St Giles, Rowley Regis. Her parents were said to be of Dudley Port and Isaac’s occupation was given as a Huckster, which means someone who sells or offers goods, sometimes with implications of inferior goods or questionable sales techniques.
Elizabeth is not living in Dudley Port with her family in the 1841Census so must have been visiting elsewhere, possibly with family. Elizabeth’s sister Hannah was born in the first quarter of 1841 so it is possible that a member of the family took Elizabeth to stay with them, to help their mother.
Searching the 1841 census for Elizabeth, I found an Elizabeth Mallin, living in Church Vale in West Bromwich but she was shown aged eleven and there were twenty three children of various ages at this address, almost all of whom were described as pupils, although there was only one adult who might be in charge who was described as a governess, plus a couple of servants. The enumerator’s route described Church Vale and the Parsonage but there was no mention of the Parsonage in the listed people nor a clergyman of any sort. Living with the Governess Mary Hartland, (who was only 25) the Head of the Household Timothy Hartland appeared to be a bricklayer with the same surname and a baby aged one, also with that surname, followed by the children aged from 3-17. It seems very strange. So, if this was a somewhat chaotic establishment, I suppose the age might be wrong. But I then noted that in the 1851 Census, Elizabeth’s sisters Hannah and Mary Jane were also shown as boarders at this same address so it obviously was a boarding school and it seems that this was the correct Elizabeth Mallin. So it appears that the Mallin family were sufficiently prosperous to send their daughters to boarding school.
In 1851 Elizabeth Emma aged 23 was living at Dudley Road, Tividale with her oldest brother John who was then a provision dealer. Her sister Ann Eliza aged 20 plus her brother Edward James aged 11 were also living there.
On 5 June 1855Emma Elizabeth married Jabez Baker, a Land Surveyor, at St Giles. They had four children: Joseph Edward was born in 1859 in Wolverhampton; Walter Jabez in 1862 in West Bromwich; Elizabeth Emma in 1866 also in in West Bromwich and Agnes Louise in 1869 in Lenton, Nottinghamshire.
In 1861Elizabeth and Jabez were living at Railway Street, West Bromwich with their son Joseph Edward and also Mary Baker, Jabez’s widowed mother and a servant girl. Jabez was shown as a Land & Mine Agent.
By 1871, the family, now including all four children (but not Jabez’s mother) were living in Lenton Sands in Nottinghamshire where Jabez was employed as an Engineer. Their neighbours here included an Estate Agent, an Insurance Superintendent, a Photographer, a Police Constable and a shop keeper – and several lace makers, so it seems to have been a reasonably comfortable area. In 1881, the whole family were at 233 Derby Road, Lenton and Jabez’s occupation is shown as a Mining Engineer. By 1891, the family had moved to Loughborough Road, West Bridgford , Jabez still a mining engineer with their two daughters in the household, daughter Elizabeth Emma under her married name of Beardsley and Agnes Louise, still unmarried.
Jabez Baker, died on 18 Jun 1897, aged 70 and Elizabeth Emma nee Mallin died two months later in August 1897 and was buried on the 14 August 1897 in Nottingham. All four of their children remained settled in the Nottingham area for the rest of their lives.
Isaac Mallin (1835-1852)
Isaac was born in Dudley Port and baptised at Rowley Regis on 20 April 1834. In 1841 and in 1851 he was living at home with his family in Dudley Port. He died on Typhus Fever, aged 18 on 4 February 1852 and was buried at St Giles, Rowley Regis on 10 February 1852.
Abraham Mallin (1836-1902)
Abraham was born in Tipton (almost certainly in Dudley Port) and was baptised at St Giles, Rowley Regis on 17 July 1836. In 1841 and 1851 he was living at home with his family at 8 Dudley Port. No occupation is shown for him in 1851 but he was 15, a working age for boys in those days, so was probably working in the family business in some way.
On 3 April 1861 Abraham married Ann Hargrave Blewitt, daughter of Joseph Blewitt, Butcher (another Mallin marriage into another business family) and just four days later on 7th April the 1861 Census shows the happy couple living in their own household in Dudley Port with Abraham’s occupation shown as a Corn Factor, (an occupation which his father also followed in conjunction with his grocery business). Again, note the connection to the Milling trade, corn had to be milled, this was the family area of expertise.
Abraham and Ann had six children: Mary Louisa (1862); Isaac (1864); Jessie Blewitt (1868); Samuel (1870); Ada Sarah (1873) and Emma Gertrude (1876).
By 1871, the family were living at 37 Halesowen Street, Oldbury where Abraham was still following his trade of Corn Factor. He was two doors away from the ‘Hope and Anchor’ pub and next to the Canal side which may have been the means by which much of the corn was moved around. But perhaps he had business problems as by 1881 the family was living in Danks Street, Tipton and Abraham was listed as a labourer.
In 1891, the family had moved again – back to 8 Dudley Port, Isaac and Hannah’s home where Abraham was once more working as a corn factor, his father having died in 1885. The 1901 Census has the family still in Dudley Port, apparently now at 123 Dudley Port, rather than Number 8, where the family business had been for decades, but Abraham was still a Corn Factor so the number may just have changed.
Abraham died in February 1902, aged 65 and was buried on 7 February 1902 at Tipton Cemetery. It appears that their daughter Jessie and her husband then took over the business as Ann was living with them there at 123 Dudley Port, in 1911. She died in 1919 and was buried on 19 March 1919, like Abraham, at Tipton Cemetery.
Abraham and Ann’s children mostly stayed in the Dudley/Walsall area and lived no further away than Birmingham so closer than many of their cousins. None of them, however, returned to Rowley Regis.
Edward James Mallin(1838-1922)
Edward was born in 1838 in Tipton and was baptised on 3 July 1838 at Rowley Regis. In 1841, he was with his family in Dudley Port; in 1851 he and his two sisters Elizabeth and Ann Eliza were living with his oldest brother John in Tividale; in 1861 he was listed as a machinist in Dudley Road, Tividale with his younger sisters Hannah, listed as a grocer, and Mary Jane. Perhaps this was the same shop that his brother John had been living in in 1851, a second family grocery, in addition to the one in Dudley Port, to serve the growing community of Tividale.
On 28 March 1865 Edward married Sarah Whitehouse at Harborne. His occupation was shown as a Licensed Victualler and his father as Isaac Mallin, Corn Factor. Sarah’s father, also an Isaac, was also a publican, at the Cottage of Content in Harborne. Alas, Sarah died in September 1866, and was buried at Holy Trinity, Smethwick, aged 26 of Canal Bank, Harborne/Smethwick which appears to be where her father’s pub was also situated. Canal Bank was also where Edward’s brother Abraham was living at about this time so perhaps this was how Edward and Sarah met or perhaps they lived with Abraham, as we know that it was very much the Mallin family practice for siblings to live together.
On 4th December 1866 at Edgbaston Parish church, Edward married widow Ann Ralph (nee Butler), Joseph Mallin was one of the witnesses. The 1871 Census shows Edward (although he is, for some reason, shown as Edward Isaac in this census) as a Licensed Victualler at the Britannia Inn Tipton, where Annie and her two children Lizzy Ralph (Eliza Ann 1862) and SusannaRalph (1864) were living with them. Edward was licensee from 1868-1873. Annie and Edward had six children: Georgina Gertrude Ann (1867), Edward James (1869), Edith May (1871), John Henry Butler (1873), Albert Victor (1876-1889) and Walter William (1879).
Edward was a publican for much of his life, around Tipton, Willenhall and Dudley, although he was declared bankrupt in 1873 when he was the landlord of the Saracen’s Head which was in Stone Street, Dudley. Nevertheless, he continued to hold a license in later years and was licensee of the Three Crowns Inn, Willenhall from 1891-1904. Edward’s son, Albert Victor Mallin b 1877, died there in 1889.
In 1881 he and Annie were living in Cobden Street, Walsall and he was working as a Goods Guard.
The 1891 Census shows Edward is living at the Saracen’s Head with his wife, Ann (previously Ralph, nee Butler), children, Eliza (Lizzie Ralph), Edward James (b1869), May (Edith May b. 1871), John (John Henry Butler Mallin b. 1873) & Walter William Mallin b 1879). In 1896, his wife Annie died there. In the first quarter of 1897, while still living at the Three Crowns, Edward married widow Louisa Jane Flude (nee Lloyd b. 1849) but she died in 1899, aged 48, also while living at the Three Crowns Inn.
Hitchmough tells us that Edward James Mallin was the Licensee at the Gough Arms from about 1908- 1911.
In the 1911 Census Edward James Mallin (b1838) was living there with wife number four, Rose Hannah Mallin (formerly Griffiths, nee Booth, b. 1843) who he had married in 1902. Also living there was his son, John Henry ButlerMallin (b. 1873).
In 1921, Edward and Rose were living at 33 Fisher Street with John. Edward, at 85, was finally described as retired! Rose Hannah died in the first quarter of 1922 and, after his long and eventful life, Edward died a few months later in the third quarter of 1922, though I have not been able to find their burials.
Of Edward and Ann Butler’s six children, Georgina and Albert died in childhood.
Edward James (1869-1949) stayed in the Willenhall area, marrying Fanny Hoggins there and having six children. He worked as a gas lamp lighter and later a gas stoker and died in 1949 in Bilston.
Edith May (1871-1957) married William Allen in July 1891 and had four children with him before his death in 1898 (he thus misses appearing with Edith in either the 1891 or the 1901 censuses so I have limited information on him or his occupation), she then married Harley Chamberlain in November 1898 in Wednesfield with whom she had another son, also named Harley. Harley Chamberlain Snr died in 1937 and in October 1942 Edith appears to have married for the final time, to William T Mason in Wolverhampton. It appears that, like her father, Edith worked in the licensed and hotel trade much of her life and in 1921 she was Manageress of the Angel Hotel in Queen Street, Wolverhampton and in 1939 she was managing an off-licence in Bushbury Lane, Wolverhampton. In the 1921 Census Edith described herself as a widow, whereas in fact Harley Chamberlain was alive and living in Smethwick then, working as a Stable Man at Guest Keen and Nettlefolds; he described himself as married but perhaps they were separated. Harley died in 1937 in West Bromwich. Edith died in October 1957 in the Wolverhampton area, aged 86.
John Henry Butler Mallin (1873-1946)
John never married and lived most of his life with his father and then his brother Edward James. In 1891 he is listed as a ‘plater’, in 1901 as a mechanical engineer, in 1911 as a fitter and turner, in 1921 as a tool maker. In the 1939 Register he is noted as a ‘heavy worker’. John stayed in Willenhall and Bilston for his whole life. He died in 1946 and his Will named his niece Alice Maud Withington as his executor (along with Gordon James Smart, solicitor’s managing clerk.).
Walter William Mallin (1878-1909)
Walter William did not marry either and also lived with his father until his death in 1909, aged 31. Like his brother John, in 1891 he is listed as a ‘plater’, and in 1901 as a mechanical engineer. Walter was buried at the Bentley Cemetery, Willenhall on 11Jun 1909, his address given as High Street, Portobello, Willenhall and his age as 31.
So this branch of the Mallin family, although starting out in Tipton, mostly ended up in the Willenhall/Wolverhampton area and had no apparent further association with Rowley Regis.
Hannah Alsop Mallin(1841-1918)
Hannah was baptised on 21 January 1841 at St Martin’s Church, Tipton. She was, apparently, baptised again at St Giles, Rowley Regis two years later on 23 April 1842. This is unusual! But I have checked birth and death registrations for that time and it is not the case that the baby Hannah who was baptised at Tipton died and a later baby given the same name. Hannah Alsop Mallin really was baptised twice in different churches.
In the 1841 Census, Hannah, aged 4 months, was living at home in Dudley Port with her parents. In 1851, she, with her younger sister Mary Jane, was at the same Church Vale School which her older sister Elizabeth had been at in 1841. In 1861, Hannah was living in Dudley Road, Tividale with her brother Edward and sister Mary Jane. Hannah was shown as a grocer.
On 21 June 1864 Hannah married Frederick Duesbury, a Clerk, at St Giles, Rowley Regis. Frederick’s family were quite middle class, his father was listed, amongst other occupations, as an appraiser, an auctioneer, and a solicitor’s managing clerk. Other members of the Duesbury family were in the medical profession and Frederick also appears to have had various occupations.
Frederick and Hannah had eight children: Frederick William Ambrose (1865-1907), Arthur Edward (1867), Alexander Clifford (1869), William Herbert (1872), Ada Alice Jane (1875), Georgina Louisa (1877), Alfred Ernest (1879) and Harry Roland (1882).
In 1871 the family were living at St John’s Road, Kates Hill when Frederick was listed as a Varnish Manufacturer (the factory was apparently the Faraday Works at Monmore Green, Wolverhampton). By 1881 the family had moved to Cromwell House, Hill Road, Kates Hill where the family were still living in 1911, the last time Hannah appears in a census. Also living with them was Catherine, sister of Frederick Duesberry and Frederick had specified in his Will that a home should be provided for his sister or an annuity paid to her.
This 1928 image shows Dixons Green and Kates Hill which clearly had some superior dwellings! Copyright unknown but will be acknowledged on receipt of information.
Frederick died in September 1905, leaving a gross sum of £14,000, equivalent to over a million pounds today. Hannah died in September 1918, aged 77.
Of Frederick and Hannah’s children:
Their eldest son Frederick committed suicide in 1907, with reports at the inquest of financial and other problems, leaving a widow Mary Amelia nee Butler with two small children.
Arthur, who continued to run the varnish factory, married Myra Jordan in 1901 in Dudley and had one son John Frederick in 1904, Arthur died in 1934, having remained in the Dudley/Willenhall/Wolverhampton area all his life.
Alexander married Catherine Williams in 1902 and they had two children. He died in 1952 in the Walsall Registration District.
William disappears without trace from records after the 1891 Census when he was living at home, aged 19 and described as a Woollen Draper’s assistant. I can find no trace of him after that, no death registered, no census entries, no marriage. It is possible that he emigrated. There is a H W Duesbury listed on a ship from Australia in 1943 by which time he would have been 71 but that man was described as belonging to the Australian navy so unlikely to be our man, although possibly a descendant.
Ada Jane and Georgina both remained unmarried and appear to have shared a house in Stourbridge Road, Dudley after the death of their parents. Ada died in 1951 and Georgina in 1962.
Alfred was also a director of the family varnish manufacturing company, he married Florence Eley Dando in 1905 in Dudley and they had two sons. They continued to live in the Dudley area, Florence dying in 1934. It appears that Alfred may have re-married in 1935 but this is not certain and I am unable to find Alfred in the 1939 Register. However, he died in Dudley in 1949 so may have been out of the country in 1939.
Harry Rowland was working in the Varnish business in 1911. In 1920 he married Hilda Vincent in Sunderland, County Durham. In 1921 he was living in Sunderland and describing himself as a Master Confectioner. Harry and Hilda, a music teacher, had one son. Hilda’s full name was Hilda Whitehouse Vincent and I was interested to see the Whitehouse name which is also so common in Rowley Regis. Hilda was born in County Durham but her mother Hannah Whitehouse was born in West Bromwich! Hilda’s father was an organ builder so perhaps he built some organs in the flourishing non-conformist chapels in the Black Country and met Hannah there, perhaps it was he also who taught Hilda to play music so that she later became a music teacher.
Harry died in 1967, Hilda had died in 1959, both in Sunderland.
So Frederick and Hannah remained living close to Rowley Regis in the Kates Hill area of Dudley and their children and grandchildren mostly remained in the Dudley/Wolverhampton/Walsall area. They were perhaps the most prosperous of Isaac and Hannah’s children.
Mary Jane Mallin (1843-1910)
Mary Jane was born in the third quarter of 1843 in Dudley Port and baptised at Tipton on 5 August that year. In 1851 she was at the Church Vale School in West Bromwich with her older sister Hannah and in 1861 she and Hannah were living with their older brother Edward in Dudley Road, Tividale. In 1871, aged 27, she was at 8 Dudley Port, her father’s shop, with her widowed father, sister Annie and nephew Isaac Henry. Isaac Snr was still described as a Corn Factor whereas Mary Jane and her sister Annie were shown as having no occupation, so perhaps they were not working in their father’s business or perhaps, as in so many cases I have come across, the occupations of women were not considered worth recording.
On 23 June 1875, aged 31, Mary Jane married widower John French, aged 45, variously described as a farmer of Sandy Fields, Sedgley or a Licensed Victualler, whose first wife Eliza nee Butler had died in September 1874. Eliza was the sister of Annie Butler who had married Edward Mallin in 1866. John French had been the Licensee of the Earl Dudley’s Court House Inn, Gospel End, Bull Ring, Sedgley from 1860-1871, according to Hitchmough.
In the 1871 Census, when John and Sarah French were living at the Court House Inn, Susannah Ralph, Annie’s daughter by her first marriage and Georgina and Edward Mallin, children of Edward and Annie Mallin were visiting the Frenches, listed as nieces and nephew. This confused me as Mary Jane and John French did not marry until 1875 but when I looked further into the relationships I realised that Eliza and Annie Butler were sisters. There was also another niece visiting, Mary Berry, aged 16 who was the daughter of John French’s sister Sarah. So it seems John French was quite hospitable to members of the family.
An article in the Wolverhampton Chronicle in September 1861 relates, with reference to:
“Applications For New Licenses…..
Mr. John French, of the COURT HOUSE, Sedgley, was opposed in his application for a renewal of his license by Mr. Homer, on the grounds that a large organ or musical box had been introduced into the house, which played secular music on week-days and sacred music on Sundays. There was no other complaint against the house, and the license was therefore renewed.” So it seems that he kept quite a lively house there.
John and Mary Jane’s daughter Augusta was born in Sedgley in 1877 and John French was later the licensee of the Talbot Hotel at Belbroughton where their next two children were born: William Henry in 1879 and John Edgar in 1881.
John French died in February 1886, aged 56, at Belbroughton. His Will, which had been written on 5 July 1879, just a couple of weeks before the birth of his first son William on the 21st, (his daughter Augusta had been born in 1877) and was proved in May 1886, probate granted to his executor Frederick Duesbury, Mary’s brother-in-law, the other named executor Benjamin Smith having renounced the probate and execution of the Will. It is not a complicated Will but is not very helpful as it refers to his wife, unnamed and just his wife, not his beloved or dear wife as the majority of Wills seemed to in those days. Provision is also made for his children but again these are neither named nor numbered, perhaps wisely as he and Mary did have another two sons after William, John in 1881 and Frederick in 1883. A solicitor’s note is attached to the Will stating that John French was formerly of Sandy Fields Sedgley but late of Belbroughton, Licensed Victualler.
Of these children Augusta MaryFrench (1877-1910) died in 1910 in Wolverhampton, aged 32 and unmarried.
William Henry French(1879-1949) was with his family in Belbroughton in 1881 but I was at first surprised to see that in 1891, aged 11, he was in the Orphan Asylum in Penn Road, Wolverhampton, while his widowed mother (living on her own means) was living in St Phillips Terrace, Penn nearby, with her other children. A little delving revealed that the Wolverhampton Orphanage had been founded in 1850 by a local lock manufacturer to provide a home for children left orphaned by a serious outbreak of cholera. It had later expanded and provided an education for the boys there and was located in handsome buildings, so may well have provided William with a good education. William went on to become a Director and Company Secretary to a local company ; he married Ellen Haydon in Aston in 1911 and they had two children. They lived in the Penn area of Wolverhampton, William died in Bilston in 1949, and Ellen in 1965.
John Edgar French(1881-1973)
John Edgar became the farmer of the family, following his father into the trade, although it appears that he moved farms several times and certainly John French’s Will had directed that the rents and profits from his real estate should be paid to his wife for the life or for the duration of her widowhood and on her death or remarriage that income should be used to maintain his children. Then that when his youngest child reached the age of twenty one, the real estate should be sold and the funds split equally between his children. So there did not appear to be a family farm for John to take over.
In 1901, John was living in Penn Road, Wolverhampton with his mother and siblings when all three brothers were working as Clerks for a hollowware manufacturer . Both his sister and mother died in 1910 and in 1911 John was a farmer at Manor Farm, Shareshill, Wolverhampton where his two brothers were also living with him, William a Despatch Clerk for the Holloware company and Frederic a Manufacturer’s Clerk at a Safe and lock Works. John was noted as an employer but the number of employees is not noted. By 1921 John had married Minnie Sortwell and his brother Frederick was still single and living with them at Old Fallings Lane, Bushbury. Although Minnie was born and grew up in Essex, they were married in 1920 in Hampshire. I found a newspaper article about Minnie stating that she had passed her third year nursing examinations at Wolverhampton General Hospital so perhaps they had met during her time there. In the 1939 Register John was farming at Seisdon in Staffordshire and Minnie was described as ‘incapacitated’ . He and Minnie do not appear to have had any children. I cannot find a definite death record for Minnie French but a woman of her age died in 1962 in Birmingham. If she had died in hospital, rather than at home in Wolverhampton, this might well be her. This Minnie was buried in Erdington so perhaps not, as John French died in 1973 in Penn, Wolverhampton, his home area. But it is also possible that they were separated.
Frederic CecilFrench
Frederick’s birth was registered in 1883 with that spelling but in many later records, including his baptism at Clent in November 1883, his name appears as Frederic. The variation persisted throughout his life. His marriage and his death were registered as Frederick, his Will and Probate record him as Frederic. It seems likely to me that in his own and family circles he was Frederic but in cases where officials were keeping records, they may have assumed the more common spelling.
Following his father’s death in 1886 when Frederic was only three, his mother appears to have moved to the Penn area of Wolverhampton. It is possible that Frederic also went to the school at the nearby Asylum as certainly William had. All three brothers had become Clerks by 1901 so presumably had a reasonable standard of literacy. By 1921 Frederic was the Managing Director and Secretary of a Company of Lock Manufacturers.
In 1924 Frederic, by then 41, married Adelaide Cecila Jaffa who was 38, in Egremont, in Cumberland and they settled in Penn Road and then at 8 Merridale Lane, Wolverhampton where they were still living in 1939. It appears that they did not have any children.
At some later point Frederic and Adelaide moved North as they both died in West Kirby, Cheshire where Adelaide had been born and perhaps where she had family. She died in 1970 and Frederic in 1972.
So yet again, most of these descendants of Mary Jane settled away from Rowley Regis, mostly in the Wolverhampton area.
Summary:
So these were the descendants of Hannah Alsop, eldest daughter of Edward Alsop and Betty Hodgetts. She had been born in the Mill Farm at Rowley Regis in 1801, and her husband Isaac Mallin came from a business family that had many links with milling. They had nine children and seven of those had children, giving Hannah and Isaac at least forty-eight grandchildren.
Hannah kept her associations with Rowley Regis, although she lived at Dudley Port after her marriage and she was baptised and buried at St Giles. Her older children were also baptised there and there are indications that at least the older boys may have learned milling skills from their grandfather Alsop. Later children tended to base themselves around Dudley.
As noted previously these children and their own children tended to marry into families like themselves, business people, traders, publicans, shopkeepers, merchants. Some were clearly comfortably off, some became quite prosperous, few of them appeared to end up in the relative poverty of many residents of the Lost Hamlets.
But many of these descendants ended up away from Rowley Regis and the Lost Hamlets, living in an arc ranging from Kates Hill and Dudley, round to Walsall and Wolverhampton.
My next pieces will move on to Edward Alsop’s other children and we shall see whether they remained in Rowley or moved further afield.
The Alsops only just count as a family of the Lost Hamlets, as they lived at Windmill Farm from about 1764 and were there in the 1841 Census, right on the edge of the Lost Hamlets area where they originally operated the Windmill. In this first piece I will look at John Alsop and his family and his son Edward. Edward’s children will be the subject of another piece.
Windmill Farm was off Tippity Green and Hawes Lane, the windmill was between the church and Tippity Green, opposite the Bull Public House and where the Windmill is shown on this Ist Edition OS map. The quarry which developed on this land was marked on the 1892 OS Map as Alsop’s Hill Quarry so the family obviously retained control for many years.
Reprint of the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey, Copyright: David & Charles
The Role of the Miller in Society
Where there were farmers growing crops requiring milling and where there were people needing flour, not to mention bakers, Millers were important and necessary in society. Some home grinding was possible with small querns or grinding stones but later two millstones one on top of the other – the bottom one stationary and the upper rotating to grind grain between them to crush the seed, remove the husk and crush the germ inside. The Romans developed this method further by using power to drive the runner stone, at first by horse or donkey but later using water power.
The Domesday Survey records more than five thousand water mills in England, the wind mill was not introduced into England until about 1185.
During the medieval period, there was a customary law known as Mill Soke. The Mill would be built by the Lord of the Manor and his tenants were obliged to bring their corn to be ground there, by the Lord’s Miller and he retained a percentage of the ground flour as his ‘toll’, usually about one fifteenth. Millers were apparently not popular in the communities they served, often accused of taking more than their entitlement (it was noted that the Miller’s pigs were usually the fattest in the village) or adding material, such as alum, to pad out the flour which would, of course, affect the subsequent baking with the flour but would increase the profit for the miller. In 1872 Dr. Hassall, the pioneer investigator into food adulteration and the principal reformer in this vital area of health, demonstrated that half of the bread he examined had considerable quantities of alum. Alum, while not itself poisonous, by inhibiting the digestion could lower the nutritional value of other foods.
The Rowley Windmill was a manorial Mill. It occurs to me that it may have suited the Lord of the Manor to recruit his Miller from outside the community and he would certainly have needed a miller who knew the business and how to operate the machinery.
By 1750 the tradition of ‘soke’ was disappearing and millers bought grain direct from farmers and sold flour direct to his customers. White bread also became more popular so millers had to install extra equipment, more storage was needed and mills became larger. Between 1750 and 1850, the population of England tripled to nearly 17 million so more flour was needed.
Copyright: Paul Harrison. This painting shows Heage Mill, in Derbyshire, probably painted in about 1850, this mill is very similar to the remains of the windmill in Rowley Regis, shown in this photograph published by Wilson Jones.
Copyright: Wilson Jones.
By 1850, the traditional windmill or watermill had arrived at a developed state, with many operations becoming automated. The growth of canals and later railways made it possible to distribute flour more easily and quickly. But as new large automated mills with steel rollers rather than stones were built, traditional millers could not compete, particularly in urban areas. In rural areas, some diversified by milling animal feed as well as flour but by the early years of the 20th century, traditional flour milling had all but ceased.
This timeline certainly fits in very well with what we know of the Rowley windmill. In November 1860, an advertisement appeared in the Birmingham Journal, giving details of the Rowley Flour Mill to be let at a low rent, with two dwelling houses and good access to both canal and railway. The Mill was said to consist of “an 18 horse condensing engine, driving three pairs of French stones, with Dressing, Bolting and Smutting machines, Bean Mill, etc all in excellent repair.” So it was using relatively modern technology and money had been spent on equipment. But Edward Alsop had died in August of that year so perhaps no-one in the family had the skills or was prepared to continue traditional milling, especially if they were already well established in other work.
The role of the Millwright in the development of mechanical engineering
I recently read an interesting paper [i]which examined the importance of technical competence in the development of the Industrial Revolution. This suggests that the manufacturing and maintenance of relatively sophisticated devices using high quality materials (such as in mills) required top quality mechanical competence. In the early stages, this competence mattered more than schooling or literacy. The paper focuses on a particular group of craftsmen, millwrights and wheelwrights or simply known as ‘wrights’. These were originally highly skilled carpenters specialising in the planning, construction, improvement and maintenance of mainly water-powered machinery. The paper calls these the engineers of the pre-industrial era. They suggest that the agility and efficiency of the English Apprenticeship system also helped to produce high-skilled mechanics who in turn apprenticed others to pass on their knowledge. The skills developed by these ‘wrights’ later enabled them to be at the forefront of other engineering work, including steam engines – so when mines needed pumps and lifting gear and when factories began to be set up these men were the ones who knew how to install the machinery and the power sources which drove them. Was it a coincidence that many of these factories, especially those in the weaving industries, were known as ‘mills’? And although the Midlands did not have textile mills in the same way as the North-East, they certainly had many other areas of work and factories requiring similar engines and similar skills.
Some of the best-known engineers of the Industrial Revolution originally apprenticed as Millwrights, including James Brindley, the great builder of canals during the early canal era after 1750 and John Rennie the co-inventor of the breast-wheel water mill and who built the first steam driven flour mills. The millwrights were seen as all-round technically competent craftsmen and textile engineering installations categorised their equipment as either ‘millwright’s work’ or ‘clockmaker’s work’.
The report quotes John R Harris, a historian of technology during the Industrial Revolution, as saying “so much knowledge was breathed in by the workman with the sooty atmosphere in which he lived rather then ever consciously learnt”. Which I think sums up very nicely the versatility and dexterity of many of our Black Country workers, well before literacy was common. Specific skills were recognised and valued, some men described themselves as nailers or labourers but many others were more specific, many of my male Rose ancestors were rivet makers, others were furnacemen or puddlers, quarrymen were stone cutters or sett makers. I recently saw a remark that competent people in the Black Country made chains, less able made nails but I do not think it was as simple as that. Each village made a particular type of nail – Dudley folk made horse nails – whereas chains tended to be made in the Cradley area but each nailer would learn the skill from their own family so such small differences remained very local. And other skills, such as ramrod making, jew’s harp making, gun making, bladed tool makers were all present locally and usually appear to have been family based skills and very possibly keenly restricted to family!
The authors of this report urge recognition of the ‘crucial role of mechanically trained and highly competent craftsmen in the Industrial Revolution’, which they suggest correlates closely to the distribution of mills and millwrights centuries ago, even as early as the Domesday survey, as the forerunners of the mechanical engineers who enabled much of the Industrial Revolution.
Millers in Rowley Regis
So, milling as a profession required certain skills which were clearly, in the Alsop (and Mallin) families passed through the generations. Although they may not have actually built the mills or the milling machinery, so were not technically ‘millwrights’, millers required quite a high level of engineering skills to operate and maintain their mills, and were not unskilled workers but likely to be in considerable demand by the owners of manorial mills to operate them safely and efficiently. And such owners may have preferred to bring in millers from outside the immediate area whose loyalties would lie with the mill owner, rather than the local populace. From my research, the children of the Alsop family appear considerably more likely to move away from the area and settle elsewhere, than most of the core families I have examined so far in this study.
The Alsop Family
The Alsops were not a family who had been in the parish for very long (at least in contrast to some of the local families who had been there for several centuries) and they were not as prolific as some of the Hamlet families. There are only 28 Alsop entries in the whole of the printed parish registers for Rowley Regis and only 34 results for the parish in FreeREG.
John Alsop (1744-1809)
John Alsop was born in about 1744, calculated from his age at burial which may not have been very accurate, such details are only as accurate as the knowledge of the person giving the information at the time of the death so with older people unlikely to have first hand knowledge. I searched FreeREG for the period 1730-1750 for a baptism in the area around Rowley Regis. There were three John Alsops baptised in the period. The first was baptised on 30 October 1734, the son of John and Mary Alsop. The second was baptised on 7 April 1740, the son of John and Elizabeth Alsop and the third on 9 September 1748, the son of Thomas and Mary Alsop. All three were baptised in Walsall where there are other later Alsop connections. I was very interested to note, whilst I was researching John Alsop, that another John Alsop aged 70 (which tallies with the last baptism above if the age was accurate)was buried in 1818 in Walsall and that his abode was also at ‘Windmill’. Perhaps the Alsop family were Millers and the Rowley John Alsop had moved to Rowley, with his specialist skills, specifically to operate the windmill there. As to which, if any, of these is the John who moved to Rowley, we cannot be sure.
John first appears in the Rowley Parish Registers in 1764 when his daughter Elizabeth was baptised, the first of five daughters – who were baptised to John and Elizabeth (nee Gough) Alsop. Then followed Hannah in 1766, Rachael in 1768, Lucy (1770-1791) and Mary in 1773. Elizabeth Alsop died in childbirth in 1773, (which I have concluded as Mary was baptised on the same day that Elizabeth was buried). A child of John Alsop was buried in November 1773 but no name is given but this was probably the motherless Mary .
John Alsop’s daughters
There is no further clear mention of any of John Alsop’s daughters in the Rowley Registers, other than the burial of Mary in 1773 and Lucy in 1791. There are no marriages for the other daughters in Rowley Regis but I think I have found their marriages elsewhere.
Elizabeth Alsop (1764-1794)
I think that Elizabeth Alsop married widower John Cooper (1761-1797) at Harborne, on 16 July 1782. Cooper’s first wife Mary nee Smith had died in March 1782 and their daughter Sarah (1782-1793) was baptised on the day of Mary’s burial so John re-married very quickly, partly, one would think, to give Sarah a mother. Elizabeth and John Cooper had five children, all baptised in Rowley Regis: these were Joseph (1783), Esther (1785), Elizabeth (1787-1811), Edward (1790-1794) and George (1792). Elizabeth died in 1794 and was buried at St Giles, so when John died in 1797 their surviving children would have been orphans. There are numerous Coopers in the area after that, especially in the Oldbury area but I have not been able to identify what happened to the children after that, although they may have been taken in by family.
Rachel Alsop (1768-1836)
It seems likely that Rachel Alsop married John Fenton at St Martin’s (in the Bullring) in Birmingham on 7 October 1788 and it appears that this couple went on to live out their lives in Aston, Birmingham where they had at least five children: John (1791), Isaac ((1793), Charles (1800), Sarah (1803) and Henry (1806). This Rachel died in 1836 and I think JohnFenton died in 1843. If this is the correct couple, they were living in Potter Street, Aston which is just behind what is now Aston University and in the 1841 Census John is shown as a Steelworker.
Hannah Alsop (1776-1824)
Hannah married Benjamin Edge, a chain maker of Tuckies in the parish of Broseley, Shropshire in a Quaker ceremony in Worcester in April 1801 when she would have been 35, she was said to be of the City of Worcester. They lived in Coalbrookdale, certainly most of their married lives and at the time of their deaths, Hannah died in 1824 and Benjamin in 1845 and they appear to have had at least one child James Edge (1808-1887) who continued to live there for the rest of his life.
So only one of John Alsop’s daughters stayed in Rowley after her marriage, the other daughters settled in Birmingham and Coalport respectively and it appears that their children stayed in those places.
John Alsop’s second marriage
After Elizabeth’s death, John Alsop then married Sarah Bate, a widow, at Clent in 1780. Sarah’s husband John Bate had died in 1775, he and Sarah had had three sons and a daughter between 1770 and 1776. Perhaps John, with his several daughters, was keen to have a son to inherit his mill and farm. Edward Alsop was baptised at St Giles on 30 December 1781, the son of John and Sarah Alsop, he appears to have been their only child.
John Alsop died and was buried at St Giles in 1809, aged 65. Sarah Alsop, of the Windmill, died and was buried in February 1813, aged 76, of Dropsy.
Edward Alsop (1781-1860)
In 1841 John’s only son Edward Alsop, aged 60 with his wife Betty (nee Hodgetts), also 60, were living at the Mill Farm with their children Sarah aged 35, Thomas aged 30, Mary Ann aged 20 and Rhoda aged 15. There was also a Male Servant John Morteby, aged 15 who was not born in the County. Again, perhaps it suited millers to employ family members to keep their knowledge within the family or to bring in servants from outside the local community.
The 1851 Census is helpful, concerning farms and this has Edward Alsop, by then 70,as a farmer of 40 acres, employing 2 labourers. And in 1851 there were two men listed in his household, one a cowman and one a waggoner. I wonder whether Alsop was already quarrying by that time and required a waggoner to transport stone from the quarry?
EdwardAlsop had married Betty Hodgetts of Clent on 7 Jun 1801 at Clent, and his abode was also shown as Clent. It may be that there was a family connection for the Alsops in Clent as his father had also married there but there were also a large number of Alsops in Walsall.
Edward and Betty’s first daughter Hannah was baptised on 11 October 1801 at St Giles, Rowley Regis. Then followed Sarah in 1805, John in 1807, Thomas in 1809, and Mary in 1811, (who was buried aged 1 in 1813), Joseph in 1816, Edward in 1818 – in these latter two baptisms the occupations of the fathers were being shown and in these two Edward Snr’s abode was shown as Windmill and his occupation as a Miller. Next came Mary in 1820 and Rhoda in 1821 and now his occupation was shown as farmer, so perhaps the milling was becoming less important.
Betty Alsop nee Hodgetts, died in July 1854 aged 74 and her abode was given as ‘The Mill’. Her cause of death was noted as ‘old age’. Hodgetts is not an unknown name in the area. I have not yet researched Betty Hodgetts myself but other researchers who have her on their trees on Ancestry indicate that she was born in Halesowen and that her father was Timothy Hodgetts and her mother Mary Mallen – Mallen is a name which will recur later.
Edward Alsop died six years later, aged 78 in 1860 and was buried at St Giles on 7 September 1860, no cause of death noted. The Mill was being advertised for rent only a few months later so it was obviously still operational and fully equipped at that point, when milling ceased completely is not known.
The next piece will look at the children of Edward and Betty.
[i] The Wheels of Change: Technology Adoption, Millwrights, and the Persistence in Britain’s Industrialization Joel Mokyr, Assaf Sarid, and Karine van der Beek+ which I was able to download free from academia.edu
Edward Alsop, of Alsop’s Hill and Alsop’s Quarry, died, aged 78 and was buried at St Giles on 7 September 1860, his abode given in the Burial Register as Blower’s Hill. Does anyone know where this was? I didn’t! And no-one in the local Facebook page knew either when I appealed there. But clearly the name was quite unremarkable to local officials who recorded information in parish Registers, compiled Poll Books and drafted Wills. They must have known where Edward was referring to. But I was puzzled, I had seen nothing to indicate that Edward had moved anywhere else, he appeared to have lived all of his life in the Windmill Farm. But I could not find Blower’s hill on any maps or in any online archives.
So I have been exploring down a little local history and genealogical rabbit hole, trying to find out where Blower’s Hill was.
Blower’s hill
The spelling and punctuation vary slightly but usually the Alsop family appear to have spelled Blower’s with an apostrophe – making Blower’s a possessive adjective. And often they did not capitalise Hill, as if it were just a description of part of the landscape, rather than a defined area.
I considered various issues:
What had this area been called before the Alsops arrived?
First of all, although the land there was known later as Alsop’s Quarry or Alsop’s Hill, it must have been called something before the Alsops came along in the mid-1700s. And it would probably have taken a few years/decades/generations of the family living there before it became associated with their name. Even then, although many records and maps show the land they farmed as Alsop’s Hill or Alsop’s quarry, the family appear always to have called it Blower’s hill.
So perhaps the earlier local descriptive name was ‘Blower’s Hill’, either for the windmill, which was apparently a manorial mill, so long established there.
Copyright: Glenys Sykes – my artist’s impression of Blower’s Hill!
Or perhaps the land was known by the name of a previous owner, since mostly the Alsops used a possessive apostrophe in the name and it was very common in this area for places to be named after their owners, such as Gadd’s Green, Darby’s Hill, Perry’s Lake, etc, etc.
So – were there any Blower families locally?
I searched all four volumes of the Rowley Parish Registers (1539-1849)for the name Blower and found just one! In 1573. a Thomas Davies married Agnes Blowere. So at some point there was at least one person called Blower or Blowere known of in the parish even if it was 200 years earlier! But when I extended the search on FreeREG to surrounding parishes (including 100 additional places within 7.5 miles) I found that , between 1750 and 1850 there were 314 entries of baptisms, marriages and burials in surrounding parishes. There were Blowers in Harborne, Halesowen, Wombourne, many, many in Penn, others in Oldswinford, Brierley Hill, Dudley, Sedgley, and especially latterly, in Bilston and Wolverhampton. Most of those are on an arc to the west of Dudley, between Harborne and Wolverhampton.
I was especially interested to note the marriage of a Susannah Blower to Joseph Hill at Clent in 1769, Rowley was a chapelry of Clent and quite a lot of Rowley people married there. And, of course, there were lots of the Hill family in the Lost Hamlets. And I also noted the marriage of Letticia Perry to John Blower in Sedgley in 1825 – hmmm, Perry’s Lake/Blower’s Hill, are immediately adjacent to each other in Rowley – interesting, perhaps their families had property interests in common!
So although there were very few Blowers in Rowley Regis in later centuries, there were plenty in adjacent areas.
The Electoral Records
Second: Another important clue lay in the Poll Books. Edward was shown in the 1837 and later Poll Books consistently with a house and land at this address, which was described as Blower’s hill Farm. I found Poll Book entries as early as 1837 – just after electoral reform had been enacted which would have given Edward the right to vote – and all of these identify his only property in Rowley Regis Parish as Blower’s hill farm, which was a house and land occupied, implying it was being farmed.
These voting rights were an important part of political and social reform in 19th century Britain. There are interesting articles with further information here ( https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/what-caused-the-1832-great-reform-act/ ) and here(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_Act_1832 ), and on numerous other pages. But it was not universal suffrage, the vote given to all men (and certainly no women!). The right to vote was extended to small landowners, tenant farmers, shopkeepers and all householders who paid a yearly rental of £10 or more. So the holding of property had presumably been checked before being recorded in the Poll Books.
What did the family call it?
Thirdly, at least Edward’s generation of the family were calling it ‘Blower’s hill’, rather than Alsop’s Hill or Windmill Hill, over many years.
Answering my own question!
So I have gone through again all of the records I have found for Edward Alsop, looking carefully at the descriptions in those records.
And, finally, fourthly, looking carefully at the wording of the Probate record for Edward’s Will, shown here, it actually says that he is ‘late of the Mill Farm Blowers-hill in the parish of Rowley Regis.’ And his son Thomas and daughter Rhoda, as executors, are said to be ‘of Blowers-hill aforesaid’.
Copyright: Probate Office.
Which shows, it seems, that Blowers-hill was the name by which the area of land farmed by the Alsops was previously known, and that it and the Mill farm were one and the same place.
Another old Rowley place-name detected and, I believe, placed geographically, at least on my mental map!
Over the last few weeks, I have been doing some of the basic preparation work for more possible family studies, for the Hipkiss and Whittall families. This is going to be a slow painstaking task, as they were quite prolific and, especially for the Whittalls, the spelling variations make this quite challenging. But I have done a lot of searching through censuses and parish records and made pages and pages of notes. And I am nowhere near ready to write either of them up but I needed a break from the Hipkisses and Whitalls!
So I decided to take a temporary diversion and look at something quite different, to give my brain a rest! I decided to look at the farms in the Hamlets in the 1841 census, starting with Windmill Farm at the junction of Hawes Lane and Tippity Green, the Alsops , millers and farmers, newish (by Rowley standards) to the parish, smallish family, no connections to my tree. Very refreshing.
Copyright: J Wilson Jones.
Ibberty or Tippity Mill, Wilson Jones calls it the Manorial Mill and this is presumably the Mill which the Alsops operated. This photograph appears in his book A history of the Black Country and he appears to have taken the photograph himself. There is no indication of when this was taken but the book was published in about 1950. However, the Mill does not appear on the 1902 OS map so perhaps it was a photograph he acquired from someone else.
Copyright and date unknown but I think this map is part of a copy of the map drawn up before 1800 for the Rowley Regis Enclosures. You can see that John Alsop was renting quite a bit of land here which subsequently became Alsop’s quarry. And in the middle at the bottom is a small oblong which has the name J Alsop , the word Mill and a little diagram of a windmill above the word Mill, although almost obscured by the plot number. So this shows where the Alsops were living, milling and farming. The Mill appeared to have an access road, too which has subsequently disappeared, unless, of course, it later became the site of the Club Buildings? The Alsops had arrived in the parish by 1734, possibly as Millers as there are various Alsops in nearby areas who were also millers.
But, as so often happens, when I got started on the Alsops, they turned out to be quite interesting and worthy of a post of their own to my blog (to follow soon!). And as I started to gather information on the children of Edward Alsop, who was the farmer there in 1841, I found that his second son Joseph had married a Sarah Eliza Dingley and was living in 1841 at the bottom of Rowley Village where he was a shopkeeper.
Straightforward enough so far, and I was interested to see the Dingley name, as I was at school with a Geraldine Dingley, back in the 1960s and I hadn’t come across it in other researches. Because Sarah Eliza had given her full name in the Census, I was able to find her marriage easily on FreeREG, she had married Joseph Alsop at Clent in 1832. And, as I could calculate her birth year from later censuses, I found her baptism on 25th December 1812 at Halesowen. She was the daughter of Ira Dingley (1789-1864) and Elizabeth nee Cooper (1788 -?), the eldest but one, I found, of about ten of their children baptised at Halesowen church. That sounded good, Ira is a relatively unusual name so should be easy to trace. As indeed he was. We will ignore for now that there were at least three more Ira Dingleys to follow in short order, son and grandsons which did complicate sorting them out later. But never mind…
This family all baptised their children at Halesowen, this was before Blackheath St Paul’s was built but they lived in the Hill area of Blackheath, Long Lane, Cocksheds, Gorsty Hill, Malt Mill Lane.
There are clues in these names, I think – Gorsty Hill was probably rough heathland with lots of prickly gorse bushes, the Long Lane really was a long lane leading from Rowley all the way to the King’s Highway at Quinton, there must have been some poultry business at Cocksheds and a brewer’s Malt Mill somewhere in the area – most pubs brewed their own beer but they needed Malt and therefore maltsters.
I was able to find this later Ira’s children William (1810-1842), Sarah Eliza (1812-?), Elisabeth or Betsy (1815-?), Ira (1819-1855), Henry (1822-1885), Paarai (1823-1905), Neri or Nari (1829-?), Edmund (1829-?) and Edward (1830-?). Imagine what it would have been like in that household? Two people called Ira, one called Paarai and one called Nari? Did you shout for me? Recipe for confusion…
I was particularly interested in Nari or Neri, that really is an unusual name. But I do have two other Neris on my family tree – my great-grandfather and great-great-grandfathers were both Neri or Nari Ingley or Hingley – my aunt knew her grandfather and pronounced his name ‘nar-eye’ but he usually spelled it Neri.
How about that for a coincidence? Neri Hingley/Ingley and Neri Dingley, both living within a mile of each other? They must have known each other, surely?!
Neri Ingley /Hingley
So my 2xg-grandfather Neri Ingley (1824-1901) – the spelling varied between Ingley and Hingley for quite a long time about this period – was baptised in 1824 at St Giles, the son of John Ingley and Mary nee Hackett of Old Hill. This Neri married three times – to Mary Slim (1827-1861), with whom he had eight children, then to widow Ann Aldridge nee Whitehouse ((1823-1869) with whom he had my great-grandfather Neri (1862-1934) and finally to Maria Taylor (1832-1906) with whom he had two more sons. Busy lad.
Just to complicate my family tree, Neri Ingley was my 2xgreat-grandfather through Ann Whitehouse and their son Neri, but his third wife Maria Taylor was also my 2xgreat-grandmother through her first marriage to James Hewitt and their son Joseph. Although the 1861 Census just gives the abode of James and Maria Hewitt simply as Blackheath, they were living next door to William Taylor, who was Maria’s older brother and his wife Phoebe (and his step- daughter Sarah Whittall) and next to them was William Dingley, followed by the Hadley family so it seems very likely from this juxtaposition of families that they were living in this same area around the top of Gorsty Hill as in 1881. And the enumerator, in the description of his route, states that he was starting from the market place in Blackheath and covering both sides of the road towards Halesowen, to the top of Gorsty Hill which confirms this.
Lots more to untangle there – and another Hipkiss!
Neri Dingley
Neri Dingley was born a few years after Neri Ingley, he was baptised at Halesowen in February 1829, the son of Ira Dingley and Elizabeth nee Cooper. I have been unable to find any trace of him after his baptism, he is not listed with the rest of his family in the 1841 Census, he has disappeared. After a lot of checking and head scratching, I have come to the conclusion that Edward Dingley, apparently born about 1830 and Nari may be the same person. Edward appears in the 1841 Census, aged 10, as a son of Ira and Elizabeth but there is no baptism for him, I have checked all the way through the Halesowen Registers. Ira and Elizabeth Dingley had all of their other children baptised, why would they not have Edward baptised? And when Edward marries Matilda Johnson in 1856 he gives his father’s name as Ira Dingley. And he names his second son Nari. I can’t prove it but I suspect Ira became known as Edward.
Ancestry Hints
Perhaps this dearth of information about Nari/Neri Dingley accounts for some confusion. When I started to research this Neri on Ancestry, I was pleased to see that there were 14 hints for him, as although I always check sources for these hints, they can be useful shortcuts. This number of hints is often a sign of someone who has already been fully researched by others and it is possible to check their sources to satisfy yourself that you are researching the same person.
But when I looked at the hints, they all related to Neri Hingley, not Neri Dingley. I know because most of them referred back to my original research on Neri Hingley which had been faithfully copied by someone else! But it did throw me for a little while. They were definitely not the same person. Surely the two men had no actual family connections? I had not found any in my forty years of family history research.
The Dingley family in Long Lane/Cocksheds Lane
While I was doing the basic research on the family of Sarah Eliza Dingley, which was where I first came across the Dingleys, I found myself looking at her older brother, William Dingley, (1810-1842) and filling in his family. There were a number of Dingleys living in Cocksheds Lane, Gorsty Hill, Malt Mill Lane and Long Lane, over a number of decades, another family who tended to settle near each other. One census record in 1881 caught my eye.
Ira Dingley(1836-1894)
Amongst the children of William Dingley and his wife Rebecca nee Hadley, was another Ira Dingley , Sarah Eliza’s nephew who, in the 1881 Census, was living with his wife Phebe and their daughter Eliza in Malt Mill Lane. They had had seven children between 1854 and 1873, with most of the familiar Dingley names, including yet another Ira (1869). Checking for the marriage of Ira and Phebe, I discovered that they had married in 1858 in Halesowen church and that she was a Hipkiss, the daughter of Thomas Hipkiss, nailer. I just can’t get away from Hipkisses, it seems, they lie in wait for me and leap out when I’m not expecting them.
Copyright: Mark Bryan who posted this picture of Malt Mill lane on Facebook in 2015. He thinks it was taken about 1900 and it appears to feature a Chapel Witness Procession, possibly for Whit Sunday. (I wonder whether the little building on the far right was the Malt Mill?)
And the Whittall family
The Whittalls lie in wait, too, it seems. Because by the time of the 1881 Census, Ira and Phebe were living in Malt Mill Lane, next door to a Joseph Whittall, his wife Ann and their son James, Joseph born in Gorsty Hill, Ann in Old Hill and James in Blackheath. No direct connections obvious there, I thought, though worth some more checking.
Also living with Joseph and Ann was a Hannah Taylor who was shown as Joseph’s sister-in-law and her son Joseph Taylor who was 3 years old. Joseph’s place of birth was Cocksheds, so he hadn’t moved far. His mother Hannah gave her place of birth as Chalford, Gloucestershire. That stopped me in my tracks. I already had a Hannah on my tree who was born in Chalford, Gloucestershire – that seemed a strange coincidence – was this the same Hannah? It was indeed. The name had stuck with me because I live only a few miles from Chalford now and know it well.
The Aldridge family
Hannah Aldridge had married Benjamin Taylor in 1872 and she was my great-great-aunt, the daughter of Ann Aldridge (1823-1869) who had been born in Rowley Regis but married a canal boatman David Aldridge from Chalford , Gloucestershire in Dudley in 1846 and had borne him two children, George Aldridge (1848-1908) and Hannah (1850-?) in Chalford before he died in Dudley in 1855, whereupon she had obviously moved back to the Black Country with her two children. In 1841Ann had been living with her mother Hannah (nee Hodgetts) and step-father James Bird, her mother’s second husband, and she was living with James and Hannah again in Blackheath in 1861 (having been in Chalford with her husband in 1851). Ann’s maiden name was Whitehouse, the daughter of Joseph Whitehouse (1799-1828).
So, if Hannah was the sister-in-law of Joseph Whittall, how exactly was she related to him? Well, Joseph Whittall was the step-father of Benjamin Taylor, Hannah’s husband. Joseph’s wife Ann Whittall in this census had previously been married to Samuel Taylor who had died in 1852. What was this Ann’s maiden name, I wondered? I checked my family tree again. She was AnnIngley – daughter of John Ingley and Mary nee Hackett. So … Ira Dingley was living next door to Ann nee Ingley who was the sister of Neri Hingley.
But that was not the only link in this complicated family. Ann Whitehouse, mother of Hannah, had married again, after the death of her boatman husband. In April 1862 Ann Alldridge had married – taraaah! – none other than my great-great-grandfather Neri Hingley. So HannahTaylor, nee Aldridge was Neri’s step-daughter. Hannah was living with her step-aunt in 1881. I’m not sure how that made Hannah Taylor Joseph Whittall’s sister-in-law as I reckon she was his step-niece in law but she was certainly family of some sort! And Ann Whitehouse/Aldridge/Hingley’s son Neri Hingley (1862-1934) had married Phoebe Hodgetts (1865-1922) and had five daughters including my grandmother Beatrice Hingley.
There are two pages of the 1881 Census for Malt Mill Lane which read like a list from my family tree, this seems to have been another area where, once carefully examined, everyone was related to everyone else. Margaret Thompson, your great-grandparents George Eades and Elizabeth nee Harris were on the previous page, so no doubt these families would have been well known to them.
So, I finally arrived at the conclusion that (a) my attempt to move away, for a while, from researching Hipkisses and Whittalls had not really succeeded (and may never quite succeed) and (b) Neri Dingley and Neri Hingley may not have been related by blood but their families were certainly living very close if not next door to each other in the Gorsty Hill/Cocksheds area over a period of several decades and must have been closely socially intertwined. Neri Dingley may even have been named after Neri Ingley/Hingley, as he was born a few years after him.
I think I’ve worked it all out, made all the links, for now. But I have barely started on the other Dingleys so there may be more links to come!
Having researched the Hill family of Finger-I’ the Hole (later known as Gadd’s Green) at such length in previous posts to my blog, I have been looking at what to explore next. As I concluded at the end of the Hill family study, it is now apparent that, by and large, the families in Finger-I’ the Hole especially and in the adjoining areas were so closely connected that any family I now investigate there will almost certainly link back almost immediately – in one way or another – to the Hill family.
So I have gone back to the 1841 Census to see who else was living in Finger-I’ the Hole in 1841 and whether or how they related to one another. The 1841 Census does not show relationships and adult ages are rounded down to the nearest five years (mostly, occasionally a presumably accurate full age is shown) and the origins of each person are limited to whether or not they were born in the County. So there is a certain amount of guesswork about relationships (which can sometimes be resolved by looking at the next census). I will look at the children shown here in more detail as part of further family studies but am just trying to establish how these mixed households related to each other at this point.
Copyright: The National Archives.
This was the census enumerator’s route which is shown on the first page of each batch of the census. It appears that the enumerator was approaching Finger-I’ the Hole from Tippity Green and he later moves on to Turner’s Hill before returning to The Bull’s Head and Cock Green so presumably the first families listed lived in the first houses he came to as he climbed from Perry’s Lake. There is no mention of Freebodies Farm in this census so it is possible that some of the people listed under Finger-I’ the Hole were living there although none of the occupations are shown as farmers.
The occupations appear to be shown only for the Head of the Household, even though it is highly likely that older sons, the women and some of the younger children would also have been working or making nails. This is better recorded in later censuses.
In censuses, a double stroke after a group of entries indicates that the entries for that household are complete. A single stroke indicates that a sub-group is living in the same house. At the end of the subgroup a double stroke then shows the start of the next household. I am not totally convinced that these were always correctly recorded, perhaps omitted sometimes from the pages I am looking at as at times it appears that there is yet another group living in the same household but the stroke or double stroke are not shown. But I will work on the basis of what is shown. Where I have been able to find the maiden names of the married women I have added these in brackets, these were not shown in the Census.
My apologies that the correct layout for the table has not copied over from Word so some names are spread over two lines – very irritating!
In 1841 then, living in Finger-I’ the Hole, were:
First Group
The Priests, the Taylors and the Hills
Christian name
Surname
Age
Occupation
Whether bornIn County
William
Priest
45
Nail m[aker]
Y
Sarah (nee Smith)
Priest
45
Y
Elizabeth
Priest
15
Y
Sub-household 1
Joseph
Taylor
40
Nail m
Y
Margaret (nee Bagnall)
Taylor
40
N
Emma
Taylor
12
Y
Josiah
Taylor
10
Y
Thomas
Taylor
8
Y
Mariah
Taylor
6
Y
Sub-household 2
Thomas
Hill
45
Nail m
Y
Catharine (nee Taylor)
Hill
45
Y
Thomas
Hill
15
Y
Eliza
Hill
15
Y
James
Hill
12
Y
Elizabeth
Hill
9
Y
Joseph
Hill
7
Y
John
Hill
5
Y
Catharine
Hill
5m
Y
So were there really three families living in one house here? Three adult men, nailmakers, with their families of one, four and 7 children respectively? It seems there were. Or perhaps this was a once larger house sub-divided, as discussed previously in my blog.
Were they related to each other? Yes, certainly in at least some of the cases.
William Priest had married Sarah Smith at Harborne on 3 October 1813. The parish boundary of Harborne at this time covered all of the Hill part of what later became the town of Blackheath and also included much of Whiteheath. So, although this couple had not been living in the Lost Hamlets at the time of their marriage, they were probably close by.
I have not yet identified how or whether William Priest and David Priest, the husband of Ann Hill and living just a few doors away, were related but I have not yet researched the Priest family in detail so that may yet emerge. They do not appear to have been brothers but I have more work to do on David Priest’s family.
Nor have I yet discovered whether Sarah Smith was a Rowley girl but again, that may become known. Sarah’s age, given as rounded down to 45 in the 1841 Census seems to be given ten years later in the 1851 Census as 43 but it is possible that this is not the same Sarah so more research is needed. There were 17 Sarah Smiths baptised in Rowley Regis St Giles alone, between 1790 and 1810 and another 21 at Dudley St Thomas, so it is not going to be a quick process to identify her with any certainty and for these marriages before Civil Registration started in 1837, family details are not given so I do not know who her parents were!
However, looking at the marriage of the next couple listed – Joseph Taylor to Margaret Bagnall, – I was interested to find that this took place at Kingswinford on 19 May 1823. And on the same day, Thomas Hill married Catherine Taylor, also at Kingswinford – a double wedding of the Taylor siblings, presumably. So finding those two families living together now makes more sense.
So there were connections between at least part of this household and their neighbours but more to be investigated.
Second Group
The Hipkisses, the Whitehalls & the Taylors
Christian Name
Surname
Age
Occupation
Whether bornIn County
John
Hipkiss
70
Nail m
Y
Ann (previously Nock, Nee?)
Hipkiss
60
Y
Paul
Hipkiss
20
Y
Sub-household
Solomon
Hipkiss
30
Nail m
Y
Sarah (nee Brookes)
Hipkiss
30
Y
Thomas
Hipkiss
9
Y
Hannah
Hipkiss
7
Y
Maria
Hipkiss
5
Y
Ann
Hipkiss
3
Y
(N/k in this census, actually Solomon Jnr)
5m
Y
John
Hipkiss Jnr
30
Nail m
Y
Priscilla (nee Guest)
Hipkiss
25
Y
Selena
Hipkiss
8
N
Henry
Hipkiss
3
N
William
Hipkiss
7m
N
Sub-household 1
Joseph
Whitehall
59
Nail m
Y
Sarah (prev.Taylor, nee Hipkiss)
Whitehall
69
Y
Sub-household 2
Elijah
Whitehall
25
Nail m
Y
Ruth(nee Priest)
Whitehall
25
Y
Sarah
Whitehall
6
Y
Tabitha
Whitehall
4
Y
Emanuel
Whitehall
2
Y
Philiss
Taylor
35
Y
Mary
Taylor
12
Y
Joseph
Taylor
9
Y
Samuel
Taylor
7
Y
William
Taylor
5
Y
Another interconnecting group –
Looking at John’s history, John Hipkiss Senior, from his age in the 1841 Census and at the time of his death in 1850, was born in about 1770. There were three possible John Hipkisses baptised about this time, two at Dudley St Thomas and one at Harborne. Only one was actually born in 1770, John, son of George and Margaret Hipkiss who was baptised on 25 Feb 1770. Another John, son of Edward and Mary was baptised at Dudley on 29 April 1764, which is a little early. The third John was baptised at Dudley on 5 December 1773, the son of John and Sarah. None of these seem to have died in infancy so it is not really possible to know for sure which was this John. However, none of this John’s numerous children was called Edward, George or Margaret so it is possibly the son of John and Sarah that we are looking at.
A Rowley killing
I noted an intriguing burial entry in the St Giles Register on 18 December 1792 when a William Richards was buried with a note that he had been “killed by Jno. Hipkiss”. Sadly I have been quite unable to find out any more about this event, whether or not there was an inquest or a trial, no mentions in the Press and whether this is the same John Hipkiss.
Military Service
Whilst researching, I also came across an entry in the Royal Hospital Chelsea Records for a Sgt. John Hipkiss who was discharged from the 37th Regiment of Foot in August 1808 suffering from ‘diseased viscera and broken constitution’. I looked up viscera and it apparently refers to the soft internal organs of the body, including the lungs, heart, and the digestive and reproductive systems. Quite a poorly man, then. His age was given as 32 (so born in 1776) and his place of birth as Rowley, Staffs so it is possible that this is the same John. Interestingly there was another Hipkiss from Rowley on the same page of hospital records, a Corporal Joseph Hipkiss who had been discharged in October 1806, following a severe fracture at what looks like Trinidad – although the writing is not good and it may be that this is an obscure medical term I do not recognise. This Joseph was 36 then, so born in 1770. This was during the Napoleonic Wars when Britain was at war with France, which continued until 1815, and 1/6th of all British men served in the army or navy during this period. They may have been brothers or cousins but Rowley was a large parish. There were probably a lot of Rowley men who served in the army during this time.
John’s marriages and offspring
However, it may have been this JohnHipkiss who married an Ann Shaw in Dudley St Thomas in 1794, when he was about 24, the marriage witnessed by Sarah Hipkiss and J Bond. And it may have been this Ann, the wife of a Hipkiss who was buried at St Giles on 26 July 1798. An unnamed child of John Hipkiss was buried at St Giles on 19 August 1798, less than a month later and it is tempting to think that Ann may have died in childbirth and her baby a few weeks later. I cannot be sure but it is possible.
Certainly a John Hipkiss, a widower, married a Sarah Day, a spinster at Dudley St Thomas on 15 January 1799, just a few months later. Joseph Hipkiss, the son of John and Sarah was baptised at St Giles on the 5 January 1800, possibly or possibly not the Joseph Hipkiss buried at St Giles on 20 July 1802. Mary, daughter of John and Sarah Hipkiss was baptised at St Giles on 12 February 1804. On the 14 September 1806, Sarah, wife of John Hipkiss was buried at St Giles and only three weeks later, John, son of John Hipkiss was also buried there. Draw your own conclusions, but sadly I suspect that John had lost another wife and child in childbirth. And it seems possible that John had at least one living child to care for and would need another wife.
In addition to the birth of Solomon to Ann Nock, there is a baptism on 25December 1807 of a John Hipkiss, son of Jno. and Ann Hipkiss at St Giles. Where does he fit into the picture? – I really don’t know since Ann Nock and John Hipkiss were not married until 25 November 1811. Perhaps John Snr managed to fit in yet another marriage in between which I have not yet found!
So I think it is fair to say that John Hipkiss Senior, as he appears in the 1841 Census, had a fairly complicated marital history. But it appears that he had at least one son – Solomon Nock– born before he married Ann Nock and that this Solomon was still living in his house with his own family and who continued to use the name Solomon Hipkiss for the rest of his life. Next door to them was John Hipkiss Jnr, born to John and Ann in 1807. There had also been twin sons James and Daniel born to John and Ann, and baptised on 8 December 1811, just a month after their marriage. I wonder whether the curate had realised that John and Ann were not actually married and put pressure on them to marry before the twins were born? Little Daniel’s burial on 1 January 1818 has a note that he, aged 3 weeks, had been found dead in bed with his mother. His twin James was buried a few months later on 29 April 1812, aged 20 weeks, of a bowel complaint.
Solomon Hipkiss and his family are in the household of John Hipkiss who appears to be the right age to be his father. However, I can find no trace of baptism for a Solomon Hipkiss anywhere in the area. He is very consistent in the 1841 Census, later censuses and his age given at the time of his death in 1884 that he was born in about 1810 in Rowley Regis and, since he was living with John Hipkiss it seems likely that he was John’s son.
So I looked at children called Solomon who were baptised in Rowley Regis at about that time and there were three.
Solomon Priest was baptised on 26 October 1806, the son of Mark and Rosanna Priest. But this Solomon died in 1808 so that rules him out.
Solomon Trowman was baptised at Rowley on 28 April 1811, the son of Thomas and Mary Trowman. But this Solomon appears to be alive and living in Cradley Heath in 1841 so not our Solomon.
The third Solomon was Solomon Nock who was baptised at Rowley on 24 December 1810, so exactly the right date. He was the ‘base born son’ of Ann Nock. Aha! And – oh look – I see from FreeREG that John Hipkiss, widower, married Ann Nock, widow at St Giles, Rowley Regis on 25 November 1811, less than a year after Solomon’s birth, their marriage witnessed by none other than Timothy Hill and also Richard Gaunt who was the Parish Clerk and probably frequently acted as a witness to marriages. Timothy’s wife Maria had been a Hipkiss until her marriage. Was John Hipkiss related to her? Very probably! So this was presumably the Ann who was living in the household of John Hipkiss in the 1841 Census and it seems likely that Solomon was John’s son, as he subsequently used that name.
Also in the house in 1841 was Paul Hipkiss, who had been baptised at St Giles on 5 September 1819, the son of John and Ann Hipkiss of Finger-I’ the Hole, John’s occupation given as a labourer. In later censuses Paul is shown as Ann’s son (John’s son, too presumably but he was deceased by that time).
It seems that the John HipkissJunior who appears next in the census is the John who was born in 1807. He died, aged 40 and of Gadd’s Green, in 1847 and was buried at St Giles on 28 December 1847 so from the age and date it seems likely this is the same person. Poor chap was noted as having died, on 23 December 1840, of rheumatism which seems unusual as a cause of death but medical diagnoses were somewhat inexact at that time. His death was registered by John Hipkiss of Gadd’s Green, his father and his death certificate was uncertified so that there is no knowing what a medical practitioner might have put. His death was followed in 1850 by that of his father, who died of old age, aged 80, also of Gadd’s Green and who was buried on 21 July 1850 so both of these Johns were gone before the next census.
John Hipkiss Jnr was living with his wife Priscilla nee Guest. They had married at Dudley St Thomas on 26 March 1832. The witnesses at the marriage were Thomas Allen and Thomas Whitehall, a name which will recur in this family. Their children Selina, aged 8, Henry aged 3 and William, aged 7 months were, unusually for this hamlet, noted as not having been born in Staffordshire. It took a while to find out more about Selina since she was born in 1832, before the start of Civil Registration but I eventually found her baptism at Christchurch West Bromwich where she was baptised as Ann Selina on 31 Jul 1836 with an incomplete note of her birth date as 19 ? 1832, with no month shown. I found a birth registration for a Henry Hipkiss on 1 July 1838 when the family were at Rood End, near Oldbury and Henry was also baptised there on 12 Aug 1838. In both baptisms the family were living at Rood End and his father was noted as a collier. The birth of William Hipkis was registered in the Kings Norton Registration District, William was born on 31 October 1840 in Streetly Street, Kings Norton and his father’s occupation was shown as a miner. He was baptised on 22 November 1840 at St Nicolas Kings Norton when his father was still shown as a Coal Miner.
However, by 1841, only a few months after William’s baptism, the whole family had moved back to Gadd’s Green, possibly because of his illness and so that his family could support them.
Sub-household:
The Whittalls
Also, apparently living in the household of John Jnr, was Joseph Whitehall, aged 59, as his name was shown in this census with his family. Elsewhere he is shown as Whittall and there are several other variations of this name in use around the area! There is only one likely marriage for Joseph and his wife Sarah, (aged 69) going by ages of themselves and their children’s ages and that marriage took place at Dudley St Thomas on 11 April 1813, both Joseph Whittall and Sarah Taylor being widowed.
Sarah Taylor’s previous husband was Josiah Taylor and they had been married on 13 September 1795 at St Giles. She had eight children with him, from SarahTaylor in 1796, Mary in 1796, Catherine in 1799, Joseph in 1799, Elizabeth in 1803, Benjamin in 1803, Phillis in 1805, to Ann in 1806.
Joseph and Sarah remained in Finger-I’ the Hole, or Gadd’s Green as it was subsequently known until their deaths, Joseph died in 1855, aged 75 and Sarah in 1863, aged 93 (according to the Burial Register entry, although I make her age 88), both were buried at St Giles.
More connections:
Hmm, some of those names ring bells. When I look back to the first group, living in the household of William Priest, there are the two Taylor siblings, Catherine and Joseph who had a double wedding in 1823 in Kingswinford. And the ages of those two siblings match, given the five year variance in the 1841, with Sarah’s children. And it appears that this is who they were. Their re-married mother was living next door to them in Finger-I’ the Hole, in the household of John Hipkiss. And, guess what Sarah’s maiden name turns out to be, when I find the marriage of Sarah and Josiah Taylor? Yes, Sarah was a Hipkiss… And Sarah’s sister was Maria who was married to Timothy Hill, also living in Finger-I’ the Hole, whose family was the subject of my last family study.
Joseph and Sarah’s son ElijahWhitehall was also living with them in 1841 and he had been baptised at St Giles on 10 November 1813. By 1841 Elijah had married Ruth Priest at Dudley St Thomas on 1 June 1836, a first marriage for both of them, and their three children Sarah aged 6, Tabitha (sometimes known as Sabia or Sabiah), aged 4 and Emanuel aged 2 had been born. I cannot find baptisms for any of the children at present. The family were great users of biblical names and it is interesting to speculate that they were early Dissenters who had their children baptised by Methodist or Presbyterian ministers. Their use of unusual biblical names implies a good knowledge of the Old Testament. In later years, Elijah and Ruth had added Paarai (later known as Pharoah) in 1841, Mabel in 1844, Mary in 1846, Charity in 1848, Priscilla in 1851, Abraham in 1854 and Ruth in 1857. Elijah and Ruth remained in Gadd’s Green and Tippity Green for the rest of their lives, Elijah died in 1874 and Ruth in 1883, both were buried at St Giles. I will do some more work on the Whittalls in more detail at some point.
Phillis Taylor: Also with Joseph and Sarah was a Phillis Taylor, born in about 1805 – probably Sarah’s daughter from her first marriage, as the age is correct. Along with four Taylor children – Mary aged 12, Joseph aged 9, Samuel aged 7 and William aged 5. In the 1851 Census, Phillis is still living in Gadd’s Green with Sarah and Joseph Whittall and is described as a widow. It is possible, of course, that Phillis Taylor married a Taylor so did not change her surname but I cannot find a marriage for Phillis anywhere in the area. I found a baptism on 16 August 1829 for a Mary Ann Taylor at Dudley St Thomas, daughter of Phillis Taylor of Rowley, also a baptism for a Joseph Taylor, also at Dudley St Thomas, on 12 August 1832 when Joseph was described as the son of Samuel and Phillis Taylor of Rowley Regis, Samuel’s occupation given as a nailer. Phillis continued to live in Gadd’s Green, with various members of the Whittall/Priest/Taylor families but no husband, until her death in 1882.
Curiously I have found a Samuel Taylor, living in Rowley Village in 1861, aged 57 who might be about the right age to be this Samuel . He is a nailer, married to a Mary and has three children – Edward aged 18, Hannah, aged 12 and James aged 9. I was also interested to see that this Samuel was living next door to an Issachar Hipkiss (later known as Hezekiah) who was the son of James Hipkiss and Phebe Moreton – Phebe was the sister of Thomas Moreton who was married to Elizabeth Hill. This may be a coincidence but there do seem to be a lot of links between the Hipkiss/Hill/Taylor families, to say the least.
3rd Group
Christian name
Surname
Age
Occupation
Whether born in county
William
Woodall
45
Nail M
Y
Elizabeth (nee Whithall)
Woodall
40
Y
Edward
Woodall
15
Y
Pheby
Whitehall
30
Nail M
Y
Mary
Whitehall
10
Y
Samuel
Whitehall
7
Y
Goodness, what a small household, only 6 people, but still two families.
To look at the second part of this household first, Pheby Whitall was the daughter of Joseph Whittall/Whitehall, living next door in this census, by his first wife Mary Worton who had died in 1810 a few months after Pheby’s birth. Mary and Samuel appear to be Pheby’s illegitimate children, had been baptised at Dudley St Thomas, Mary Ann on 12 September 1830, and Samuel on 4 May 1834, both described as children of Phebe Whittall of Rowley and both noted as illegitimate. So these three fit easily into the web of family relationships in Finger-I’ the Hole.
Woodall, however, is not a common name in the Lost Hamlets area, although there were Woodalls in the Rowley Parish Registers as early as 1611 and a William Woodall as early as 1626 when Elizabeth, daughter of William Woodall was baptised. In later times, the Woodalls tended to be in the Old Hill/Cradley Heath area or Dudley/Tipton/Sedgley. In fact I find that William is definitely a favourite Woodall name, it recurs constantly through the generations.
The age of 45 in the 1841 census means that William was aged between 40 and 44 so that indicates a birth year of between 1796 and 1801 and he was born in Staffordshire. When I searched FreeREG for the baptism of a William Woodall in this period in Rowley and the surrounding area, there were only two baptisms, one at Dudley St Thomas on 6 March 1796 of William, son of John and Mary Woodall, and the other at Tipton, for William, son of Thomas and Ann Woodall. The latter William appears still to be in Tipton in the 1851 Census so it may well be that the William in Rowley was the son of John and Mary baptised at Dudley St Thomas, remember that residents of Turner’s Hill and often Finger-I’ the Hole/Gadd’s Green frequently used Dudley rather than Rowley church.
The only marriage I found for a William Woodall marrying an Elizabeth was on 23 April 1821 at Dudley St Thomas when he married Elizabeth Wythall, both of Dudley. Wythall is not a common Rowley name either. This stymied me for a while. ( I can be quite dense at times!) Until it dawned on me… Hmm, was this a corruption of Whittall/Whithall? And sure enough, Elizabeth Whithall, the daughter of James and Phebe (nee Downing)Whitehall was baptised on 1796, so a good fit for this Elizabeth. And Elizabeth’s brother Henry Whittall was married to Mary Hill, eldest daughter of Timothy and Maria Hill. So that would account for this couple living in the Hill stronghold – Hill family connection firmly established!
I found a baptism at the Old Hill Primitive Methodist church, dated 9 April 1851 for an Edward Woodall which stated that he was born on 3 August 1823, that is, baptised as an adult, and that he was the son of William (a nailer) and Elizabeth Woodall, his abode given as Old Hill. And sure enough, William and Elizabeth are living in Garratts Lane, Old Hill in the 1851Census and Edward, now a nailmaker and aged 26, is living at the ‘Back of Garratts Lane’, with his wife Ann and three children, Elizabeth aged 6, Jane, aged 3 and Edward aged 1month.
So, as I suspected at the end of my Hill family study, the Woodall family is also closely linked to the Hill/Whittall tribe!
The Priest household
Next along the row is the household of David and Ann (nee Hill) Priest which also includes Ann’s brother Joseph Hill and his family: I list them here for completeness but both families were covered in detail in my study of the Hill family.
Christian name
Surname
Age
Occupation
Whether born in county
David
Priest
35
Labourer
Y
Ann (nee Hill)
Priest
35
Y
Timothy
Priest
10
Y
William
Priest
9
Y
Mary
Priest
7
Y
Elizabeth
Priest
5
Y
Sub-household
Joseph
Hill
20
Coal Miner
Y
Betsey (nee Jones)
Hill
20
Y
John
Hill
5
Y
Cathrine
Hill
2
Y
The Moreton Household
The final household in Finger-I’ the Hole is that of the widow Elizabeth or Betsey Moreton, nee Hill. Again, this family was covered in detail in the Hill family study so they are included here just for completeness.
Christian name
Surname
Age
Occupation
Whether born in county
Elizabeth
Moreton (nee Hill)
35
Mail M
Y
Emma
Moreton
15
Y
Mary
Moreton
12
Y
Thomas
Moreton
8
Y
William
Moreton
5
Y
Elizabeth
Moreton
2
Y
Maria
Moreton
10
Y
Sub-household
John
Simpson
20
Y
Fanny
Simpson (nee Hill)
20
Y
The sub-household consists of John and Fanny Simpson. John and Fanny were married on 12 Apr 1841 at Dudley St Thomas. JohnSimpson was a minor, a bachelor and a Miner, with his abode given as Dudley Wood. Frances or Fanny, his wife, was Frances Hill, of full age, also of Dudley Wood. John’s father was Joseph Simpson, a potter and the bride’s father was Thomas Hill, a miner. Interestingly, the witnesses at the marriage were Thomas Hill and Elizabeth Moreton – and here they are, living with Elizabeth on 6th June when the Census was taken. Was this Thomas Hill the same Thomas Hill who is listed in the very first household in Finger-I’ the Hole in this census? Well, it seems not as that Thomas and Catherine were not married until 1823 but there was another Thomas and Catherine Hill pairing who baptised other children, mainly in the Handsworth area at about that time. It is intriguing, though, that Elizabeth Moreton was clearly closely involved. I have not yet been able to link the Thomas Hill in the first group to the rest of the Hill family but will continue to work on this.
Summary
So there we have it, as I suspected at the conclusion of my Hill family study, it transpires that everyone living in the hamlet of Finger-I’ the Hole in 1841 was closely related to the Hill family. It seems extraordinary to me that the entire hamlet was inhabited by one family but it appears that this was the case.
I do not know the logistics of this, how ownerships or tenancies of the various parts of the family passed between members of the family, how it was decided who would live here and who would live just down the road in Perry’s Lake or Hawes Lane. But we already know that there were members of the Hill family living there for hundreds of years…
So, who owned the properties in Finger-I’ the Hole?
The Enclosure Act and Award 1807-08
About 300 acres of common pasture in Rowley in 228 separate holdings were ‘enclosed’ under this Act and various freeholders were mentioned in this. Richard Bate, a farmer bought some additional land adjoining his existing holdings at Tippity Green, Isaac Downing did the same at Turner’s Hill. Richard Gaunt acquired land at Portway Hall. Some of these names recur in later records.
The 1841 Poll Book
On Ancestry, there is a Poll Book for 1841 which gives the names and abodes of those qualified to vote in the Parish of Rowley Regis, the nature of the qualification to vote – ie. the land or property held – and where this property was. Interestingly, there are no Hills listed as voters in the Parish, so presumably they did not own land in the area but there are various other familiar local names.
A William Bennitt owned a freehold house and land in Oakham;
Benjamin Bate held freehold houses in Tippity Green; Ferdinando Smith of the Grange at Halesowen also owned freehold land and premises there. (I have a feeling that Ferdinando Smith may have been connected with the Earl of Dudley but I may be wrong!) I am slightly puzzled that the Earl of Dudley does not appear in this list as I suspect he owned a great deal of property in the area but I cannot find his name or title in the list, perhaps nobility were not permitted to vote in elections for the House of Commons, although no doubt they made their preferences known to their tenants.
Joseph Bowater is listed as the owner of a house and land at the Bull’s Head;
Other owners are listed as holding property –
John Bate lived in Garratt’s Lane, but owned one third of a house and land in Cock Green, the Bate family were in the licensed trade and owned the Cock Inn and Benjamin Bate, mentioned above, also had houses at Perry’s Lake.
Joseph Cookes, of a local farming family, had a house and land in the Knoll (Knowle), and Edward Fletcher of Netherton owned a freehold house and land there.
Charles Cox lived in Hall Street, Dudley but owned a house and land in Oakham, William Cox owned freehold land in Portway. Other voters in Portway included Joseph Green Bourne who lived in Dudley, the Rev. William Lewis who lived in Sedgley, John Mallin who also lived in Portway, John Taylor who lived in Birmingham, Joseph Woodhouse and John Williams who each owned a house and land and also lived on Portway.
Owners of land on Turner’s Hill included Joseph Downing who also lived there, Jeremiah Detheridge and Edward Foster who both lived on Portway Road, Benjamin Thompson who lived in West Bromwich, William Woodhouse who owned and lived in a house there and William Jewkes who lived in Dudley but let his house on Turner’s Hill to James Hipkiss (who is not listed as living in Finger-I’ the Hole in 1841but is listed as living just up the hill on Turner’s Hill). As might be expected John Levett had a house and land at Brickhouse and James Adshead Levett owned houses at Perry’s Lake.
Two members of the Hipkiss family appear on this Poll Book list: Joseph Hipkiss is listed as owning freehold houses at Springfield, William Hipkiss also owned a house and land at Springfield Colliery.
The Woodhouse family are also well represented: William Woodhouse owned and occupied a house and land at Oakham, Joseph Woodhouse lived in Kidderminster but owned a freehold house and garden at Portway, let to Joseph Lowe. Benjamin and Thomas Woodhouse, publican at the Wheatsheaf and farmer respectively are both listed as owning houses at Lye Cross.
Samuel Whitehouse is listed as occupying a house and land at Lye Cross Farm and John Whitehouse as owning a freehold house at Causeway Green.
There are dozens of entries in the Poll Book relating to other parts of Rowley village and the wider parish but I have concentrated on the owners of land in the immediate area of the Lost Hamlets.
There are only two specific references to Finger-I’ the Hole in the list, Samuel Partridge who lived at Long Lane, Halesowen owned a freehold house and garden there and William Partridge of Oldbury also owned a freehold house and garden, which was let to John Hipkiss.Partridge is a name I associate with the Long Lane/Quinton area (a dear life-long friend of my mother named Partridge lived off the top end of Long Lane until well into the 1980s and many of her family were from Quinton) which is indeed where Samuel Partridge was living. Perhaps their two houses were adjoining and let to various connections of the Hill family.
Or perhaps some properties in the area were under the direct control of the Earl of Dudley who was the Lord of the Manor, and were rented direct from him, which might account for the apparent continuing occupancy over such a long period of time.
But there were no Hills, no Moretons, no Whittall/Whitehalls, appearing in the Poll Lists for the Lost Hamlets area. Two members of the Hipkiss family appear to have owned houses in the Springfield area and there are members of the Priest family listed but they are all based in the Cradley Heath area where the Priests had a strong association with the Presbyterianchapel there. Some of the houses described as Turner’s Hill might also have been around Finger-I’ the Hole. So it is clear that the Hills and their immediate family were tenants of some sort and not land owners, which ties in with their apparently fairly humble status generally. This would have been the case for most ordinary people in those days, home ownership was not a common experience for humble folk.
What next? Further research on-going!
It seems possible that there were also family connections between the Hill and also the Hipkiss, Priest and Taylor families with Cradley Heath, Old Swinford and Kingswinford so there is more digging to be done there. Interestingly, whilst looking at members of the Hill family, I notice that a Thomas Hill was at one stage the curate at Oldswinford so that may help to explain family connections in that area!
I am also now working on the Priest and Hipkiss families to work out how or whether they interrelated and I will also be doing more work on the Whitehall/Whitall/Witall/Wytall families so more family studies are in the pipeline.
And I confess to being tempted to do a similar exercise as this for Perry’s Lake/Tippity Green in the 1841 Census and, perhaps, in due course, Turner’s Hill to further track the close contacts between these communities. But it is painstaking work, made even slower these days as I am finding that I must check that people are not duplicated on my own family tree, having arrived there through different connections. Knowing now, as a result of this research, how interrelated the local populace were, the ‘Merge with duplicate’ button on my family tree on Ancestry is coming into use more often! And, having merged duplicated individuals, the same exercise then has to be undertaken for their immediate relatives! I have eleven Edward Coles, ten Thomas Hills, ten Joseph Priests, for example, all with sufficiently different year of birth to make it likely that they are separate individuals but needing to be checked- So updates may take a little time.
Yes, I am a glutton for punishment but I hope that my faithful readers will find something here of interest!
In all, Timothy Hill (1763-1831) and Maria Hill nee Hipkiss (1782-1855) had seven children between 1800 and 1823, including Benjamin who may or may not have been the son of Timothy’s first wife Ann Priest or of Maria, his second wife. I have been aware of the number of children they had almost since I started my family history research but until now I had not realised how closely they all remained in their community.
Perhaps unusually for that period, it seems that all seven survived into adulthood and childbearing age. Although it is possible that there were other children that I have not found who lived only short periods or were stillborn.
Timothy was about 68 when he died. Two of the Hill sons died relatively young – Benjamin aged 44 in a colliery explosion and Joseph aged 49. Joseph was also a miner but the burial record contains no clues about his death. Samuel lived the longest of all the children, to the ripe old age of 90, very unusual for those days.
And the four girls also all lived long lives, most of them staying within the close neighbourhood of the Lost Hamlets. Maria, their mother, had lived to be 73. Mary Hill was 81, Ann and her sister Elizabeth (Betsey) were both 86 and Jane was 77 when they died. These were unusually long lives for those times, these girls must have inherited some strong genes!
Perhaps living up on the hill above the main settlements meant that they had space to grow some of their food, fresh air, free mostly of much pollution and similarly their water supplies from local springs were probably purer than water in wells lower in the valleys. Whereas many of the men were in quite hazardous occupations, their lungs subjected to constant exposure to coal dust, furnace fumes and quarry dust, with no safety equipment which may have impacted their health, not to mention the hazards of explosions in mines and quarries. But the women and children nail makers would also have worked in the dusty polluted air inside poorly ventilated nailshops.
Grandchildren
So how many grandchildren and great-grandchildren did Timothy and Maria leave?
Child No of children No. of grandchildren
Benjamin 4 27
Mary 9 53
Ann 6 28
Elizabeth 8 64
Jane 10 68
Joseph 5 27
Samuel 4 3
Total: 46 270
So, from their seven children, Timothy and Maria had about 46 grandchildren and the extraordinary total of about 270 great-grandchildren, 213 of these through their daughters so not bearing the Hill surname. Many of these stayed in the immediate area of the Lost Hamlets. So, I think it is fair to say that the Lost Hamlets were well populated with this family and their close connections.
I say about 46 and 270 grandchildren and because there are a couple of instances of people marrying their cousins so Timothy and Maria would be their grandparents twice over and there are also some children whose exact parentage is unclear. There may also have been some children who died in infancy who I have no information about. And a few people simply could not be traced after a certain point and they may have had more children wherever they were.
The Hill children married mostly local people, usually very local. Surnames of spouses in that generation include Whittall, Priest, Moreton, Taylor/Bridgwater, Hackett, Williams, Jones, Bate and Smith.
In the 1841 Census there are twelve households listed under Gadd’s Green or Finger-i-the-Hole, as it was known then, but I can only see one family listed there which is not named either Hill or one of the first four of these names – he was William Woodall. And even then, I suspect I will tie him into the Hill family at some point as he has a Pheby Hipkiss living in his household. So it appears to me that this hamlet was essentially a Hill family enclave. There were certainly Hills in Rowley as early as 1604, as mentioned in the Parish Register and it is likely that they were in the Lost Hamlets area then.
Timothy and Maria’s grandchildren married spouses called Tibbetts, Pearson, Worton, Pritchard, Steadman, Lowe, Whitmore, Blakeway, Jarvis, Parish, Cole, Hemmings, Bowater, Ingram, Leech, Homer, Slater, Priest, Redfern, Siviter, Beet, Parsons, Stokes, Nock, While, Payne, Westwood, Cox, Perry, Raybould, Pockett, Allen, Barnsley, Groves, Ennis, Fellows, Hadley, almost all of these familiar Rowley names.
The next generation linked with Bastable, Gazey, Horton, Harvey – and I have barely looked at that generation, there will be more names.
And yet there are other Rowley names which do not appear – no Parkes, Darbys, Rustons, Levetts, who were all farmers or business people. It appears generally that the Hill family married into families like themselves, nailers, labourers, miners, foundrymen, quarrymen – not many rags to riches stories but plenty of hard working people.
Family life for this part of the Hill tribe essentially centred – literally for centuries – around Gadd’s Green, on the Hill above Perrys Lake and Tippety Green which also provided homes for many of the overspill, which then edged along into Hawes Lane and Siviters Lane.
As I related in a previous post (Tales of Old Portway – https://rowleyregislosthamlets.uk/2023/10/15/tales-of-old-portway/) in a newspaper report about Portway, the reporter noted that “The cottage is said to be over 300 years old and one family – that of Hill, members of which reside in an adjacent cottage – lived there for nearly 200 years.” That 300 year old cottage was built then in about 1600, which ties in neatly with the first mention of John Hill in 1604.
Copyright: Alan Godfrey Maps:
This map shows Gadds Green in 1902 and there are only perhaps twelve cottages shown, none of them of any great size but as I set out in a previous post, (A Hall House at Gadd’s Green?) I think that the group of buildings shown on the right of the green circle on this map was where the Hill’s, in all their nomenclatures, lived and that it is likely that their house started as a hall house and was later sub-divided.
And when these descendants moved away they often stayed in close proximity to other members of the family, little colonies of Hills. And there were other Hill families in the area, these articles relate only to Timothy and Maria’s descendants.
Overcrowding
And the crowded conditions in which many of them lived and on which I have commented several times in these posts, were recognised by officialdom. In his 1875 report on living and sanitary conditions in Rowley Regis, Dr Edward Ballard (who prepared similar reports for many surrounding areas for the government) noted specifically:-
“Overcrowding of cottages, although, of course, not universal, nor perhaps very general, must, from my observation in this matter, be pretty common in many parts. Some of the worst cases I chanced to fall upon during my inspection were at a group of cottages at Gadd’s Green; in Mrs Siviter’s cottage at Hawes Lane, Rowley, and in one of the old cottages opposite the gas-works at Old Hill. In some of the instances of overcrowding which came under my observation, lodgers were taken in; in others the occupants belonged to the same family, but were grown-up sons and daughters of the tenant of the cottage with (in the worst case of all) a number of illegitimate children of two of the girls.”
I remember reading that paragraph for the first time, sitting in The National Archives in October 2023 and mentally noting the specific reference to Gadd’s Green. But it was only re-reading this section of the report last week that the penny dropped and, having done those detailed reports on each of the Hill children, I knew exactly which family Dr Ballard was referring to!
Improvements to Housing
The general overcrowding in the parish and the poor conditions of many cottages was to lead in the 20th century to a huge programme of house building which led to the local council setting out big new estates around Britannia Road, below Britannia Park and below Rowley village in the Throne estates. Houses in poor condition were regularly inspected, condemned and either improved or demolished and the tenants were offered new houses.
The detailed inspections which were undertaken, to meet the obligations increasingly imposed on local councils by various housing legislation, can be seen free online in the Annual Health Reports which were made by the Medical Officer and Sanitary Inspectors to the Rowley Regis Council. Some of these are available at The National Archives and others can be downloaded from the Wellcome Foundation. If you search online for Wellcome Foundation and then search their site for Rowley Regis Health reports there are three pages listing reports, and you can download any of them to read later. They date from the early 1890s to the 1960s and make very interesting reading, dealing with all aspects of health, births and deaths, housing, sanitation, water supply and refuse disposal, many reports listing all the staff by name. And there were remarkably few staff with a lot of duties, especially in the earlier years! I have not found the reports for every year but enough to be able to observe the changes that came over the area.
What a contrast it must have been to move from a poorly maintained damp possibly subsiding two up two down cottage with no damp courses, earthern floors, poor water supply and little or no sanitation, into a newly built house with generously sized accommodation and front and large back gardens, a three or four bedroom house with a separate kitchen and bathroom, all on spaciously laid out and designed estates, not just long straight rows of cottages as had sprung up in Blackheath in the mid-late 1800s, all within easy walking access of Blackheath town, shops, churches and chapels, schools and all the facilities they needed. And very often with familiar faces living nearby as the worst areas were cleared.
Conclusion – Kith and Kin in the Lost Hamlets
I hope that my readers have found this long and detailed account of one family in the Lost Hamlets interesting and that it may have been helpful to anyone with Hill ancestors. I am seriously considering combining all these articles into an e-book to keep all the information together.
It seems likely to me that, for centuries, these small communities in these hamlets were very insular and did not really regard themselves as part even of Rowley village proper, until the growth of Blackheath, better housing and opportunities in industry enticed later generations away from the hill.
This family study has, for me, illustrated very clearly the intrinsic web of kith andkinship which existed in the area of the Lost Hamlets and the extent to which people in the Hamlets married the boy or girl next door. (Originally, “kith” meant one’s native land or country, then broadened to include friends and neighbours, kin meant immediate and wider family.)
I follow the blog of another One Placer who is working on a OPS of a village where his ancestors lived. Over the past couple of posts he has been describing how he now has one large tree which covers most of the people which he refers to as a ‘forest’, rather than a tree. I think there is something in that analogy but in my case I do not think the Lost Hamlets or even the Hill family amount to a forest. So I looked up other words for a group of trees and I decided that the word to describe the kinship in the Lost Hamlets is a ‘spinney’ which is apparently defined as “A thicket or small wood, often on higher ground”, a thicket by the way is “a dense, tangled mass of shrubs and small trees” which seems very appropriate. So my Lost Hamlets families are all part of the Lost Hamlets Spinney!
A ‘spinney’ on a hill! Copyright Mark Schofield and Glenys Sykes
It is now apparent that as I research for more family studies in this area that I will keep finding they were also kith andkin and will link back to this research and the work I have done on other families, more trees and shrubs within the Spinney! And I observe that such webs of kinship were the norm in many small places and in small places within larger places. Tribes might be another description, although that can have sinister connotations these days. But tribes looked after their own and protected them. This, albeit a long time later, is my tribe.
How astonished these people would be, I suspect, to stand in Tippity Green today and see that almost all of the places in which they, their ancestors and many of their descendants lived their lives have completely disappeared. More astonished still, perhaps, to know how much information about them we are able to put together two hundred years later, how could they have imagined such interest in them and their lives?
But these small hamlets and the people who lived in them will not be forgotten, at least by me!
On to the last two children of Timothy and Maria Hill
Joseph Hill 1817-1866
Joseph was Timothy’s second son, born (or at least baptised) 17 years after his older brother Benjamin and after four girls. Timothy named him after his own father but Joseph was, in any case, one of the favourite names in the Hill family. Joseph was baptised on 6 April 1817 at St Giles and was already married by the time of the 1841 census.
Joseph married Elizabeth Jones on 7 November 1836 at Dudley St Thomas. They had five children: John (1836), Caroline (1840), Honor (1847), Sarah Jane (1851), and Amelia (1856). In 1841 and 1851 the family were living at Gadd’s Green, by 1861 they had moved to Perry’s Lake. Joseph was a coal miner.
Joseph died in 1866, aged only 49 and was buried at St Giles on 27 March.
In 1871 the widowed Elizabeth was living in Siviters Lane, along with the two youngest girls Sarah Jane and Amelia, with her daughter Honor and her husband Joseph Westwood and their two sons. And they are all living in the household of James Whittall who was the second husband of Elizabeth and Joseph’s daughter Caroline. Three families in one small house!
Joseph and Elizabeth’s children:
John Hill (1836-1845)
John is shown in the 1841 Census, aged 5 which would mean that he was born in about 1836, the year his parents married in November. So it is possible that he was born before they were married. This was just before the start of Civil Registration so there are no hints there and he was not baptised until 9 March 1845 when the entry in the baptismal register said that he was eight years old. He was still only eight when he died of measles in September of that year and was buried at St Giles.
Caroline Hill (1840-1911)
Caroline was born in about 1840 but no Christian name is recorded in her birth registration so perhaps her name had not been finally agreed? She was baptised as Caroline on 27 September 1840 at Dudley St Thomas. Her name is indistinct and over written in the 1841 Census but appears to be recorded as Catherine. However, for the rest of her life, she appears as Caroline in most records. In 1841 and 1851 she is with her family in Gadd’s Green as Caroline. In 1856, when she was about 16, Caroline had an illegitimate daughter whose birth was registered in the intriguing name of Joyce Taylor Siviter Hill – make of that what you will, there may well be clues to the father’s identity there! But when Joyce was baptised on 11 January 1857, she was just named Joyce Hill, daughter of Caroline Hill of Tippity Green. It appears that the priest was not prepared to go along with Caroline’s name choices as the Registrar did!
On 23 May 1858 when she was about twenty, Caroline married nailer Joseph While (1833-1861) at Dudley St Thomas and their daughter Patience was born in 1859. I think that another daughter Ellen was born and died in the first quarter of 1861 but cannot find a baptism or burial to confirm this. Joseph was a Rowley boy, he had grown up in Tippity Green which is where he and Caroline were living in the 1861 Census, with Joyce and Patience and a few doors from his family. Sadly JosephWhile died later that year, aged 29 and he was buried at St Giles on 24 November 1861.
Four years later, Caroline married her first cousin James Whittall at Dudley St Thomas on 15 May 1865. James was the son of Henry Whittall and Mary Hill and was a miner. In the 1871 Census, Caroline once again becomes Catherine – was it a family alternative to Caroline?
James and Caroline had seven children: Joseph (1866-1866), Alice (1867-1867), Mary Jane (1868-1868), Abraham (1869-1870), Eliza (1870 – ), John Fred (1875- and James 1879-1879. It appears that only Eliza and John Fred survived early infancy, so sad but by no means exceptional. And then James himself died in June 1879 and was buried at St Giles on 15 Jun, aged 47. So Caroline was a widow for the second time.
In the 1881 Census, Caroline, Patience, Eliza and John Frederick were living in 5 Siviters Lane, with Caroline’s illegitimate daughter Joyce, by now married to Thomas Southall with their two children Kate, aged 4 and Samuel aged 2, plus Caroline’s grandson Joseph Hill, aged 6. Caroline, Joyce and Patience were all nailmakers and Eliza and the other children were scholars.
On 6th November 1881, Caroline married her third husband John Payne at Dudley and by 1891 they had moved to 23 Hackett Street, Blackheath. By this time, only John Frederick remained at home. Caroline was 50 by this time and John Payne about five years her junior. They had no children of their own. Caroline and John were still in Hackett Street in 1901, now at number 40. Whether they had actually moved along the street or whether the houses had been renumbered is unknown. By 1911, John and Caroline had moved to 12 Powke Lane.
Caroline died in December 1911, aged 72. She was buried at St Giles on 28 December 1911. I have been unable to find a death or burial for John Payne after the 1911 Census.
Caroline had lived a long life with three husbands and ten children, of whom six had died in infancy. What a hard time that must have been for parents. Blackheath was expanding rapidly with streets of houses which we now know had inadequate sanitary provision and poor water supply. It must have been very hard to keep living conditions suitable for small babies, especially as the causes of cholera and similar diseases were not known or understood by most people. My own great-grandmother, living in Beeches Road, lost six of her eight babies in infancy in this period and mains drainage was still being installed in many areas of Rowley Regis. Matilda Hackett was not the only mother to lose babies like this, but perhaps with very different causes.
Honor Hill (1847-1901)
Honor was born in the third quarter of 1846 and was baptised on the 17 September 1848 at St Giles. In 1851 she was in Gadds Green with her family and in 1861 in Perrys Lake.
On 27 December 1864 she married Joseph Westwood (1848-1910) at Dudley St Thomas. Joseph was a Miner and had been born in Tippity Green in 1848, according to the 1911 Census which he completed. By 1851 he and his parents Caleb and Rosannah (nee Hipkiss) were living in Blackheath with their three sons William, Joseph and David, all born in Rowley.
Joseph and Honor had two sons William, born in 1865 and Joseph, born in 1866. They were all were living in Siviter’s Lane, with Honor’s widowed mother and other family in 1871, but by 1881 they had moved north to ‘Company Terrace’ in Darfield, Yorkshire where Joseph was working as a coal miner. They remained in that area for the rest of their lives and both died there, Honor in 1901, aged 55 and Joseph in 1910, aged 62.
Sarah Jane Hill (1851-1901)
Sarah Jane was born in the last quarter of 1851, just missing the 1851 Census. In 1861 she was living in Perrys Lake with her family and in 1871 she was again with family and her mother in Siviters Lane.
On the 14 September 1873Sarah Jane married Jonathan Lowe at Dudley St Thomas. Jonathan, a rivet maker, was from a Rowley family and grew up in Rowley Village. They were another family who lost several babies. They had six children – Henry (1873-1874), Frank (1875), Joseph (1876-1876), Sarah Ann (1880-1880), James (1881-1881) and Jonathan (1884). The last of these, Jonathan was born on 25 January 1884, (according to the 1939 Register) just a few days after his father’s death.
Jonathan Lowe died on 7 January 1884 at 15 Siviters Lane of Anaemia and Syncope, certified by his neighbour Dr Beasley. He was buried on 13 January 1884. I can trace Frank after his father’s death and also Jonathan but these were the only surviving children of this marriage.
On 15 Sep 1886, Sarah Jane married again to William Blakeway, a bricklayer, of Powke Lane. William’s wife Phoebe had died in childbirth in March 1885, leaving him with several children. William Blakeway was a great-grandson of Timothy and Maria Hill, descended from Mary Hill, their eldest daughter born in 1801 and Henry Whittall, through Sarah Maria Whittall who had married John Blakeway. Sarah Jane was a granddaughter descended from Joseph, Timothy and Maria’s youngest but one child born in 1817, so a generational gap! So they were first cousins, once removed.
In 1891 William, Sarah Jane and their blended family were living at Powke Lane and also in 1901 by which time only Joseph Blakeway, 18 and working at the quarry and Jonathan Lowe 17 and working as a nut and bolt dresser, remained at home with them. It is possible that William and Sarah Jane had children together, there are three births locally to Blakeway/Hill parents – Mary Jane in 1889 , Elizabeth in 1890 and Sarah in 1892 but in each case there are also deaths for babies of those names under the age of one and none of them appear with the family in later records. But Sarah Jane was about forty by this time and it is also possible that there was another Blakeway/Hill marriage of which I am not aware!
Sarah Jane died in 1901 and was buried on 6 June at St Giles, aged 49, of Powke Lane. William married again to Ellen Jeavons at Quinton on 21 December 1901. They appear to be living in Oldbury in the 1911 Census. William died there in 1918, aged 70, of Rood End Road and was buried at St Giles on 28 May 1918.
Amelia Hill (1856-1877)
Amelia, the last of Joseph’s children was born in the first quarter of 1856 and baptised at St Giles, on 16 March 1856. She was with her family in Perry’s Lake in the 1861 Census and with her mother in Siviters Lane in 1871.
On 25 December 1874, when she was 18, Amelia married Thomas Cox at Dudley St Thomas.
Thomas Cox was born in 1856, the illegitimate son of Sarah Cox. His mother had later married James Daniels in 1858, so Thomas appears in the 1861 Census as Thomas Daniels, also in 1871, living in Siviters Lane, a few doors away from Amelia. Thomas’s mother Sarah had died in January 1871 but James Daniels obviously continued to look after Thomas. He is described as the ‘son-in-law’ of James Daniels which meant step-son, so it appears that Thomas was not his son.
Amelia and ThomasCox had a son William, born in the second quarter of 1876 and a daughter Sarah Ann who was born in 1877 but died, aged 5 months in January 1878 and was buried at St Giles. Amelia died of typhoid fever on 29 December 1877 at 8 Tump Road (later known as Beeches Road) and was buried at St Giles on 1 January 1878, aged 21, of Blackheath. The death was registered by James Daniels of Siviters Lane, ‘father-in-law’.
James Daniels had re-married after Sarah Cox’s death and in the 1881 Census little William Cox, aged 6, son of Thomas Cox and Amelia nee Hill, was living with James Daniels and his wife Martha nee Hadley and family at 13 Siviters Lane, described as ‘grandson’. Thomas Cox was not living there. James and Martha clearly brought William up as he was still there in the Daniels household in 1891 and in 1901, when he was working as a stonebreaker. Yet again, James Daniels was shown to be a kind man, he had reared his stepson and then he had brought up Amelia’s son little William Cox as his grandson when it seems very probable that he was no blood relation at all. I think that Thomas Cox had also remarried and moved away from Rowley village but have not yet confirmed this.
Samuel Hill (1823-1913)
Samuel, the last of Timothy and Maria’s children, was born in 1823 and baptised at Dudley St Thomas on 17 August 1823, son of Timothy and Maria Hill of Rowley. In 1841 he was living with his widowed mother in Blackberry Town (in the Springfield area but exact location unknown). No occupation was shown for Samuel who was then15 but his mother was a nailer and he may well also have been nailing.
On 26 February 1843, Samuel married Amelia Smith at Christ Church, West Bromwich, both bride and groom gave their address as Bromford Lane and Samuel gave his occupation as an engineer. This may have meant that he operated the stationary pumping engines which were used to drain mines, rather than an engineer as we think of them today.
By 1851 they were living in Springfield (possibly in the same houseas he and his mother had lived in in 1841) with his wife Amelia, and he was listed as an engineer. In 1861 he and Elizabeth were living in Perrys Lake, (three doors away from his brother Joseph) and he was working as a coal miner. With them were their children Harriet Maria (1846-) , Elizabeth Maria (1849-), and Enoch, (1851-1858), then aged 1 month.
Amelia died, of consumption, or what we now know as tuberculosis, according to a note in the Burial Register, in 1852 and was buried at St Giles on 29 August 1852 aged 29 and of Perry’s Lake.
Samuel married again to Elizabeth Bate on 28 December 1856 at Christ Church, West Bromwich. They had a daughter Anne Eliza in 1857.
Samuel’s children:
Harriet Maria Hill
Harriet was baptised on 2 June 1846 at St Giles but her birth was registered in the last quarter of 1845. In 1851 she was with her parents in Springfield but her mother died in 1852 and in 1861she was living in Tippity Green with her father and stepmother and her sister Elizabeth and half-sister Ann.
Both her birth registration and her baptism record her name as just Harriet but at her marriage to Richard Pockett in 1866, she was recorded as Harriet Maria. I have noticed that a large number of the Hill granddaughters and great-granddaughters bore the name Maria, presumably after Maria Hill, nee Hipkiss, the matriarch!
Richard Pockett (1846-1872) and Tewkesbury connections
Unlike most Hill spouses, Richard Pockett was not a local boy. He had been born in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire in 1846 where his father was a Toll House Keeper on the Toll Road to Gloucester. In the 1851 census the family was in a Toll House at Tutnall and Cobley, near Bromsgrove and by 1861 his father had become a labourer in the Railway Carriage Works in Oldbury – the railways led to the end of most toll-roads, so that was rather a case of ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’!
Richard was a carpenter. Carpenter, Tewkesbury – bells were ringing in my head, at this point.
I was interested to reflect that my Hopkins ancestors were also in Tewkesbury and later Gloucester at about this time and my 2xg-grandfather Edwin/Edward Hopkins had been born there in 1839, about five years before Richard. Edwin’s father James was a carpenter, too. It seems almost certain to me that my Hopkins family members must have passed through that Tollgate on many occasions to visit James’s family in Gloucester, a tollgate manned by Richard’s father.
How weird it is then, that these two Tewkesbury born boys, with carpentry connections – my Edwin/EdwardHopkins and this Richard Pockett, both of whom moved away from Tewkesbury in early childhood, should have ended up marrying such closely connected girls from the same tiny hamlet on consecutive days? Edwin/Edward married (his second wife, his first wife had been her first cousin Ann!) Elizabeth Cole on 25 December 1866 at Dudley St Thomas and Richard married Harriet Hill on 26 December 1866 at Dudley St Edmund. Elizabeth, born in 1844, grew up in Perry’s Lake,Harriet, born in 1845, in Tippity Green. It is probably pure coincidence for the boys but the girls at least must have known each other all their lives. Harriet’s first cousin Thomas Whittall had married Elizabeth Cole’s sister Phoebe (b.1843) in 1861. Yet another example of how close-knit these families were!
Harriet and Richard lived on the Oldbury/Rounds Green/Portway side of Rowley and they had three children, Annie (1867-1881), John (1870-?) and Elizabeth (1872-?). Richard, who had been working at the Railway carriage Works, died of meningitis in 1872, aged only 26 and was buried in the Oldbury Public Cemetery on 10 April 1872. So Elizabeth, whose birth was registered in the last quarter of 1872, was a posthumous baby. The family were living in Shidas Lane, off Portway Road and later in Brades Road, Oldbury and on 23 May 1875Harriet re-married to John Allen, (who had also been born in Gloucester – another Gloucestershire connection – is it coincidence or might John and Richard have been friends?) and they continued to live in the Rounds Green area for the rest of their lives. Harriet was a widow in the 1901 Census and so John must have died between 1891 and 1901 but I have not identified his death for certain and cannot find a burial for him.
Harriet’s children:
Annie Pockett died in December 1881, aged 14.
John Pockett, baptised on 15 June 1870 at Oldbury, married Emma Dutton on 24 June 1894 at Christ Church, West Bromwich. They had six children: John (1895), Annie Eliza (1897), Samuel Wilfred (1899), and Elizabeth Maria (Lizzie) (1902). Twins Joseph and Maria were born and died in the second quarter of 1905. John and Emma lived at 2 Shidas Lane in 1901 and 4 Rounds Green in 1911, John working as a Boiler stoker in 1901 and 1911 at the Railway carriage works in Oldbury. His mother Harriet was living with them in both censuses. John was admitted to Barnsley Hall Asylum on 6 November 1912, suffering from General Paralysis of the Insane (late stage untreated syphilis), and died there on 5 April 1915, aged 44, of that and pneumonia. I now know of at least two people on my tree who died of this, in about this period, both of them, strangely, living in Oldbury. It is also possible that this disease affected their children,
Elizabeth Pockett, the posthumous baby, lived with her mother until her marriage to Joseph Harvey, at St Giles, Rowley Regis on 25 December 1895. One of the witnesses was Reuben Ingram, who has appeared so often linked to the Hill family.
Joseph, son of John Harvey and Keziah Hill had been born and grew up in Oldbury (and no, I haven’t established a link between Keziah and the Rowley Hills yet, she was also an Oldbury girl).
A short diversion to the Harvey family of Oldbury/Langley/Rounds Green
All of the Hill family on my family tree are on my dad’s side, the Hopkinses. Looking at Joseph Harvey’s family, I remembered that my 2xg-grandfather on my mum’s side was a Thomas Harvey who had also come from Oldbury. Anyone on my family tree from outside Rowley and Blackheath in this period is somewhat unusual so I wondered whether they were the same family, this Oldbury connection was worth investigating.
There was no immediately obvious connection and my research revealed that many family trees on Ancestry had assigned the wrong father to John Harvey which led to serial errors. Fortunately FreeREG had transcribed the marriage at Handsworth between John Harvey, a boat loader and son of John Harvey, also a boat loader and Keziah Hill, Keziah is a helpfully unusual name! The boatloader information helped to identify the families in the censuses.
Oldbury was surrounded by canals, the Birmingham Canal, opened in 1722, passed round the centre of Oldbury. With the opening of the loop bypass in 1858 it became impossible to enter the town without crossing a canal. So the Harvey men may have loaded boats in numerous places. But the Harvey family lived in Summer Row, Rounds Green and it seems very likely that they may have worked loading stone and coal, from Rowley, at the canal wharf and basin at Titford, Whiteheath.
This photograph, copyright Anthony Page, is somewhat later than my Harveys but the work and working conditions would have been much the same.
So I plodded through the various Harveys, building up the tree with siblings and marriages and looking for common ancestors. And eventually, after two or three days of meticulous cross-referencing, and tantalising recurring names such as Esther, John,Joseph and Thomas generation after generation and the link finally dropped into place! Joseph Harvey is my 3rd cousin 3xremoved on my dad’s side, Thomas Harvey is my 2xg-grandfather on my mum’s side. Their common ancestors were Job Harvey (1733-1808) of Oldbury, married to Esther Jones (1733-1796). Job and Esther Harvey were great-grandparents to Thomas Harvey (1832-1894) and great-great-grandparents to Joseph (1871-). So Joseph and Thomas were second cousins, once removed. Would they have known each other? Probably not, it seems to me. They were different generations. Thomas had been born in Oldbury but lived in Blackheath most of his life, Joseph stayed in the Shidas Lane/Portway area between Oldbury and Rowley all his life so they were unlikely to have been close.
I cannot tell you how ridiculously satisfying it was to me to to establish that connection, connections between the Rowley families are very common in my research but it was very pleasing to detail the connection between these Oldbury Harveys on different sides of my family tree about whom I had not been able to find much in my original research forty years ago. The advent of computers, online resources such as Ancestry and Find My Past, the availability of Bishop’s Transcripts online and above all, FreeREG have transformed the research situation. The benefits I derive from FreeREG in particular make my many hours of transcribing Parish Registers for them worth every moment. Perhaps it is time I revisited some of my early research!
This week, the Staffordshire Co-ordinator told me that every register in the Rowley Regis Parish (that can be found, some Methodist Registers have not yet been found) has now been transcribed and added to FreeREG, except one twentieth century burial register for St Luke in Cradley Heath and that is currently being transcribed. Staffordshire researchers are especially fortunate to have this resource. It is hoped now to extend transcribing to some of the nearby Worcestershire parishes not yey transcribed, notably St Paul’s in Blackheath and Dudley St Thomas which was used by many Rowley people.
So… Back to
Joseph Harvey and Elizabeth who had six children – Joseph (1895), William (1900), Ada (1902), John (1907), Alfred (1909) and Cissie (1910). So, adding a few more to the descendants of Timothy and Maria Hill!
Harriet appears to have had no more children after Richard Pockett died and she appears to have lived with her son and, after his death, her daughter-in-law in Rounds Green, Harriet died in 1922, although I have not yet found details of her burial.
Elizabeth Maria Hill (1848-1932)
Elizabeth appears not to have married and I have not been able to trace her in some censuses. However, it appears that she went into service so may have been living elsewhere and her name is not distinctive enough for me to trace her in the wider area. In 1871 she was a servant to Richard Bate and his family in Tippity Green (who may well have been connected with Elizabeth Bate, the second wife of Elizabeth’s father. I was next able to find Elizabeth in 1901 when she and her father were living with her half-sister Anne Eliza in Malt Mill Lane, Blackheath, described as a Domestic Housekeeper which tallies with the domestic servant status in 1871. In 1911 she was living with her father in Beaumont Road, Blackheath and she continued to live there after his death, and was still there, according to her probate record, when she died in 1932. I have not been able to find burials for either Elizabeth or her father and it seems possible to me that they were buried in St Paul’s graveyard in Blackheath which would have been their nearest church. The burial records for St Paul’s may be transcribed for FreeREG over the next few months so I will check again at some point.
Enoch Hill (1851-1858)
Sadly Samuel and Amelia’s son Enoch died, aged 7, in March 1858 and he was buried at St Giles on 11 March 1858.
Annie Eliza Hill (1857-1906)
Annie Eliza was Samuel Hill’s daughter by his second wife Elizabeth Bate. The Bates were another long-term established family in the hamlets and were often in business of one sort or another, keeping pubs and in at least one case described in the census as a ‘nail manufacturer’ which implies employing others and being rather more than a simple nailer. However Richard Bate, this manufacturer, still lived in Tippity Green so was not too grand!
Elizabeth herself was born in Withymoor, or Darby Hand, near Netherton and her father was described as a scythe smith, later an engineer and an ‘Inspector of Engines’. There were a number of scythe smiths around, this was obviously a particular set of skills to produce a long bladed item, much in demand for farm work and for export and from what I have seen of some scythe smiths in Clent village, it was a skill often passed from father to son. In 1861 Elizabeth was with her father and mother in Perry’s Lake and in 1871, they had moved to Northfield Road, Netherton.
On 17 June 1879, Annie married David Raybould at St John’s, Kates Hill. In 1881 and 1891, they were living in Terrace Street, Blackheath and in 1901, they were in Malt Mill Lane with Annie’s parents also living with them. They appear not to have had any children.
Annie Eliza died in 1906, aged 48. She was buried at St Paul’s, Blackheath on 13 January 1906.
David Raybould appears to have remarried in 1910 to Eliza Haden, at Quinton Church and the couple were living at 9, Edward Road, off Long Lane in 1911 and in 1921, they were living at 5, Holt Road, Blackheath. He died in 1928. I have been unable to find details of his burial or any Probate Record.
So Annie Eliza Hill is the last of the grandchildren of Timothy Hill and Maria Hipkiss of Gadd’s Green, the last of my more than 200 fourth cousins, in what has turned out to be a much longer and more involved research project than I had originally anticipated. I shall make one last piece on this family summing up what I have learned about them. The end is in sight! I think…
This is an extended account of the lives of Matilda Ennis, her husband William Hackett and her children. I outlined this briefly in my piece on Jane Hill’s children but this gives a longer explanation of my researches into this matter. A full transcription of the newspaper article appears below, the article appeared verbatim in at least two newspapers I have found, so probaably in others, too.
“SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF A CHILD
An inquest was held on Friday last, at the Shoulder of Mutton, before Mr E Hooper, Coroner, on the body of Emma Hackett, aged 6 months.
Henry Duncalfe, surgeon, West Bromwich, deposed to having received the Coroner’s precept to make a post-mortem examination; that he had found the body in a very emaciated state, but every organ of the body healthy. The stomach contained half a teaspoonful of liquid, but there was no trace of poison. There was no doubt in his mind that deceased had died from want of nutrition, and it was clear that she could not have had any food for nearly two days before death; but if she had been purged, it was possible that if she had food within two days all traces of it would have disappeared.
Jane Hoddy swore that she lodged with Miss Matilda Hackett, the mother of deceased who was living apart from her husband. She had known deceased for six weeks, and she had been very delicate. Mr Phillips, who had been attending her, pronounced her to be in a decline, so she had heard Mrs Hackett to say. Mrs Hackett went from home on Monday morning week and never returned till the following Wednesday night. Witness attended the deceased. She took a quantity of bread and milk. Up to Friday she had not been purged. She was taken much worse on Saturday and no doctor was sent for. Deceased died on Sunday morning.
Matilda Hackett identified the body as being that of her daughter Emma and proved her death. She at first denied that any woman had been in her house on the Sunday before deceased died, but on the Coroner pressing the question, she said there had been some women there.
Sarah Edwards swore that on Wednesday last she heard that Mrs Hackett had gone from home, and her child Emma was dead. She also heard they would let no person see it. She went to the house and found two women there. They said Matilda had gone to Dudley. They said Emma was in bed. She went upstairs and on removing the bedclothes she found the child lying in its own filth, and must have been in that state a long time. She had not been purged. One of the women said she had taken more care of the deceased than the mother would have done if she had been at home, for she had given her her own breast which the mother would not have done.
Thomas Bevington, Police Constable, deposed that on Monday he had received information that Hackett’s child had been poisoned, whereupon he went to Mr Philips [apparently a local doctor] and told him what he had heard. He said reports must not be attended to, but he did not give a certificate. The case caused much talk in the neighbourhood and an inquest was much desired. Consequently he reported the whole of the facts to the Coroner. On Sunday, before the death, there had been several prostitutes in the house.
The Coroner, in addressing the jury, stated that all the evidence had been laid before them that could be obtained , and upon that evidence their duty would be to find a verdict; but at the same time he must caution them against placing too much reliance on the mother’s evidence, considering the unsatisfactory manner in which she had tendered it.
The foreman said the Jury returned a verdict that the deceased had died from exhaustion, produced through want of sufficient nourishment; and they were of opinion that the n-mother’s conduct had been most inhuman, but that the evidence, in their opinion, was not quite sufficient to warrant them in committing her for manslaughter.
Matilda Hackett was called in, and severely admonished by the Coroner, who informed her that in as much as the deceased was the fourth child she had lost under similar circumstances, he considered it his duty to cause a strict watch to be kept upon her movements, at the same time informing her that she had very narrowly escaped a verdict of manslaughter. In his opinion, she had been guilty of very disgraceful conduct.”
This sad tale was a newspaper report which I found while I was researching the Hill family, and working on William, son of John and Jane Hackett (nee Hill). William Hackett had married a Matilda Ennis at Dudley St Thomas in April 1856, so his wife was Matilda Hackett. Could this be her?
The 1861 Census showed that there were three Matilda Hacketts living in the Rowley/Blackheath area at this time – but one was too old to be the mother of the child. Another was the wife of Thomas Hackett, she had been Matilda Willetts and they were living in Hyam’s Hill in 1861 with their five month old son and next door to her parents. The other Matilda was married to my William Hackett and in 1861 they were living in Blackheath with a son George who was 7 (her illegitimate son born in 1854, so some time before the couple married) a daughter Elizabeth, born in 1857 and a son John who was 1 month old. Was this the same Matilda?
I checked the 1871 Census for Matilda Hacketts to see whether these Matilda Hacketts were still in the area. I found the first Matilda mentioned above still with her husband Thomas, now in Halesowen Road with the son who had been five months old in 1861, now 11 plus three more children born in the interim. So it did not seem to be her.
What of the other Matilda Hackett with her husband William? They were not in Blackheath in 1871 and I could not find either Matilda or William Hackett of the right age nearby.
I checked what children the couple had had. I checked for birth registrations and found the birth of George Henry Ennis in the first quarter of 1854, with no MMN so probably illegitimate. This was confirmed when I found his baptism in Dudley on 3 September 1854, which listed his mother, of Queen’s Close, Dudley but no father. This also recorded his date of birth which was 17 January 1854. So he was the eldest child listed with the family on the 1861 census.
Then there was Elizabeth, born in 1857, John who had been born and died in 1858, John who had been born and died in 1861 and Eliza, born in 1862. Then there was an Emma born in 1864. Oh dear. This was sounding familiar.
Back to basics then.
Matilda, I discovered had been born in Dudley in 1835, the child of quite a big and apparently respectable Dudley family. Her father Benjamin had died in 1835, the year she was born but she had five older brothers of whom only two survived infancy and an older sister. Her uncle Joseph Ennis was a stone miner but later the gate keeper at Dudley Castle for many years.
A general search for Matilda found another marriage. Matilda appeared to have remarried in Smethwick in 1868, describing herself as a widow. But I couldn’t find a death registration for William Hackett between 1861 when he was listed in the Census and 1868 when Matilda re-married. I checked FreeREG for burials, too but couldn’t find a burial either for a William Hackett of the right age. But it was not unheard in this era, because of the expense and difficulty – and stigma – of divorce for ordinary people, for separated couples to ‘marry’ again, possibly in an area where they were not known and to pretend that they were widowed. Matilda seemed to have married Thomas Lane, a carter, at Smethwick, as Matilda Hackett and with her correct father’s name. The happy couple had a son Thomas Charles Jabez Lane in the third quarter of 1869.
But I now knew that I was looking for Matilda Lane, not Hackett in the 1871 census. But I could not find a Matilda Lane in the 1871 Census either , so where was she?
I searched the 1871 Census for the children.
I found an Elizabeth Hackett of the right age and born in Rowley Regis, living as a servant in Oldbury Road, Smethwick and the family for whom she worked, although a name I did not know, had two younger children of 7 and 6 who had been born in Rowley Regis so the family had obviously lived there at some recent point. The husband was a Railway Contractor so perhaps he had been involved with the building of the railway there – I see that the station at Blackheath had opened in 1867 so the dates for that are exactly right. So this may well be William’s daughter. And by this time, I later discovered, Matilda was also living in Smethwick…
Then I looked for George, under the surnames of both Ennis and Hackett. Nothing for George Ennis but there was a George Hacket living in Halford Street, Smethwick – the same address given as the abode of Thomas Lane, father and son in their various register entries. George was with his mother Matilda Jones, and his sister Eliza H, aged 7 and an Albert Hacket, aged 4 who had been born in Spon Lane, Smethwick and, although he had been given the surname Hackett there was no Mother’s Maiden Name, so this implied that he was illegitimate. George and Eliza appeared to be the right children. But Matilda, who was 35, was shown as being married to John Jones, aged 26, a puddler and he was noted as the father-in-law (step-father) of the children George, Eliza H(?) and Albert Hacket. Was this Eliza the Eliza Jane born in 1862? The age in this census suggests she was born in 1864 but I cannot find such a birth registration so it may be her. Or did that earlier Eliza die – or was there another baby?
And where did John Jones come from?
I then discovered that Matilda’s new husband Thomas Lane had died, aged 29 in July 1869 and was buried in Smethwick. His abode was given as Halford Street, Smethwick.
And the baby Thomas Charles Jabez Lane also died, in the third quarter of 1870, aged 11 months and his burial entry shows the same address. Oh my, another infant death and another dead husband.
Thomas Lane had only died in July 1869 – and little Thomas only in 1870, surely she had not married again so quickly? Well, yes, she had.
Matilda Lane had married John Jones at St Stephen’s, Birmingham on the 5th April 1870, just nine months after Thomas Lane died and while the baby was still alive. In 1881 the family were still at Halford Street with another son Reuben, aged 7, son of Matilda and John Jones. Albert Hacket was also still there, aged 15.
But in 1891, although John Jones and Reuben were in Smethwick, John Jones’s wife was named Louisa and her age was twenty five years younger than Matilda. Matilda had died in 1886.
So Matilda‘s life story was that she:-
Had one child in 1854 – George Henry Ennis who survived into adulthood.
Married William Hackett in 1856 and had five children, Elizabeth 1857, John 1858-1858, John 1861-1861, Eliza Jane 1862-?, and Emma 1864-1864. At least four of her children died in very early infancy, of diarrhoea or (implied) neglect and she was separated from William by the time of Emma’s death in 1864. Reprimanded by the Coroner who was going to have a watch kept on her. There is the implication that she was – at the least – sharing a house with prostitutes and that the deaths due to neglect of her children was well known to local people who were disturbed by this.
Had a son Alfred Hackett in 1867, father unknown, born in Smethwick, who survived into adulthood.
Married Thomas Lane in 1868, he died in 1869. Thomas Lane, at least, did not die due to Matilda’s negligence. His death certificate says that he was crushed by a wagon upsetting on him – what terrible luck, after only 15 months of marriage. , their child also Thomas died aged 11 months in 1870, of diarrhoea.
Married John Jones on 5 April 1870, had a child Reuben in 1874, was still with John Jones in 1881.
Matilda died in Derby on 19 August 1886, aged 51, of Diabetes which she had suffered from for 9 years. Buried in Derby.
John Jones
It appears that John Jones had moved to Derby at some point between 1881 and 1885, where he must have worked as an iron puddler. After Matilda’s death, he married Louisa Hinton in Derby in the last quarter of 1886. They had two sons and were still living in Litchurch, Derby in 1891. Sadly both of those babies died within weeks of birth so Matilda was not the only mother whose children did not survive those early months. However, by the time of the 1901 Census the couple were back in Smethwick and in 1911, they were living in Dawley in Shropshire where John was working as a Roadman for the County Council. John had been born in Wellington, Shropshire so he had returned to his roots. Curiously, although they had married in Derbyshire, Louisa and her family came from Dudley and they had lived in Dudley until at least 1871: the link is in their occupations again – Louisa’s father had been a furnaceman, John was a puddler. I have lost track of the couple after 1911, too many John Jones around!
Matilda’s surviving children
Those children who survived infancy become difficult to trace after this.
George Ennis or Hackett does not appear to be in Derbyshire with his mother and step father and I cannot find any definite record of him after 1871.
I think I have found Eliza in service in Handsworth in 1881 so she did not move to Derby with her mother and step-father. This census entry states specifically that she was born in Blackheath, rather than Rowley Regis. She may well have married after that but I have not yet found her thereafter.
Alfred Edward Hackett must have moved to Derbyshire with his mother and John Jones as he married there in 1888, two years after his mother’s death. He had one daughter Edith Ellen in 1890 and appears to have remained in Derbyshire for the rest of his life, dying in 1922.
Reuben Jones was in Derby with his father in 1891 and may well have remained there as there is a record of a Reuben Jones of the right age being buried in Derby in 1944. However, his date of birth in the 1939 Register does not fit with the birth registration for Matilda’s son so this is unclear.
Matilda as a mother
If Emma was William Hackett’s child, he and Matilda were together – at least part of the time – until no later than 1864. But if the hints of prostitution are correct, Emma may not have been his child. Whoever her father was, however, it seems clear that Matilda did not find motherhood easy and was inclined to neglect her children. She did not even register all their deaths herself, after the first, shown below. The death of the second child called John was registered by a neighbour, the death of Emma by the Coroner.
Copyright:GRO
The first infant John died aged 4 months from ‘lientery’ as shown on the partial death certificate above– a form of diarrhoea where food passes undigested through the body which had been of three moths duration. Why would a four month old baby be given food, almost from birth? Would he not be breast fed? Apparently, though, it was common for babies to be fed ‘pap’, a mixture of bread and milk, especially in orphanages where there were no wet nurses available.
The second John died aged 6 months, also of diarrhoea, this death was registered by his half-brother George Hackett, by then 16. This was in 1861 – why was the death not registered by Matilda or by William? Had they already separated by then? Was Matilda in denial or unwilling to register the death? Just as she apparently left the dead body of six month old Emma in her bed and left the town for several days.
The death of little Thomas Lane, aged 11 months in 1870 (who also died of diarrhoea after only six hours of illness) was registered by a neighbour Adeline Smith who had been ‘present at the death’. Curiously this neighbour and her husband had also witnessed the Lane’s marriage. And yet, I cannot find any trace of a woman of this name (or her husband) in the 1871 census, only a few months later, anywhere in the area.
The report in the account of the inquest mentions a comment by one of the women in the house where little Emma’s body was found had said that this woman ‘had given her her own breast which the mother would not have done” could perhaps imply that Matilda may have had an aversion to breastfeeding which could account for a lot if this had been a problem with all her babies and would account for them being fed on unsuitable food at an early age. Not every woman finds motherhood easy or natural.
Given what we also know about sanitation and water supply in Blackheath, it is not perhaps surprising that some babies died of such things but there does appear to be an unfortunate pattern in these deaths. Or perhaps Matilda was just in denial or unlucky.
What happened to William?
Another mystery. William Hackett, coming from a prolific family where children – legitimate or not- were cherished and cared for within the family group, must have found his situation after this death and inquest, appalling and shameful although no reference or reproach was apparently made to him by the Coroner, nor does he appear to have given evidence to the inquest which may be telling in itself, as it may imply that William was out of the picture by this point.
I have looked at every local burial and every death in the country of a William Hackett between 1861 and 1867 when Matilda re-married and ruled them all out on age or other grounds so I cannot find any evidence that he died. There was a William Hackett living in Cradley Heath in later censuses who was about the right age but I also found the same family in Cradley Heath in the 1861 and 1871 census so this was not our man.
And yet it seems strange for him to abandon children? Would someone from his family not have taken him in in his distress? Had all the children he knew to be his died? Did he change his name and move away, or emigrate and start a new life? Did he kill himself somewhere he was not known and was buried unknown? A brick wall I shall no doubt return to and look at again from time to time. But, of all the Hill descendants I have looked at, in all my years of family history research, this is undoubtedly the saddest story I have found.
JaneHill was baptised at Dudley St Thomas on 2 July 1809, daughter of Timothy and Maria Hill. She married John Hackett , also at Dudley St Thomas on 29 December 1828. The witnesses were Henry and Mary Whitehall but we know them as Whittall – Jane’s eldest sister and her husband. The name was fairly flexible at this time and as most people were illiterate they could not know whether the clerk or priest had spelled their name in a different way from the priest in their local church. And I have noted that Henry Whittall was a witness at most of the family weddings.
I have not been able to find out much about John Hackett. He was a collier and he was literate enough to sign the Register at his marriage. He was born in Staffordshire, we know from the 1841 Census, the only one he appears in. From the age given at his death he was born in about 1808 but how accurate that was we cannot know. I cannot find a baptism for him but then, neither can Ancestry, FreeREG, FamilySearch or FindMyPast nor anyone else researching this John Hackett on Ancestry. But it seems likely that he was fairly local and there were certainly Hacketts in Rowley Regis at this time.
Jane and John Hackett had nine children in the fourteen years they were married – Rebecca (1829), John (1831), William (1833), Thomas (1837), Jane (1839), Sarah (1840), Joseph (1843) , Alice and Leah, (both 1844, Alice in the first quarter, Leah in the last quarter.).
In the 1841 Census John and Jane are living in Perry’s Lake, with their first seven children Rebecca, aged 12, John, aged 10, William aged 8, Thomas aged 4, Jane, aged 2 and Sarah, aged 1. Thanks to a Death Certificate uploaded to Ancestry by another researcher, (Thank you, Nigel Croft) I know that John was killed in a fall of coal in a pit at Rowley Regis on 27 April 1844, his death registered by the Coroner so there was clearly an inquest, although I have not been able to find any press reports of it. John was buried at St Giles on the 30th April 1844, leaving Jane with eight children to care for and another on the way.
By 1851 Jane was back in the Hill enclave at Gadd’s Green, living in the household of her younger brother Joseph Hill, his wife and two daughters. With her are Thomas aged 14, Jane aged 12, Sarah 10, Joseph 8, Alice 7 and Leah 6. So the three eldest children were living elsewhere – Rebecca was married and her brother John was visiting her, William – by then about 18 – was, I think, lodging in Perry’s Lake, with the Griffiths family, he was working as a coal miner.
On one side of Joseph’s household were living David and AnnPriest, with their six children, on the other side a Thomas and Catherine Hill with their five youngest children (not in this direct line of Hills – as far as I know, so far…!) and beyond them Elijah and Ruth Whittall and their eight children. More connections in the Hill dynasty, to be discovered in due course, I am sure.
The 1861 Census finds Jane living in Rowley Village as a lodger in the household of John Taylor, 35, a nailer and only a couple of doors from the Ward Arms so probably in Hawes Lane. With her are Joseph, Alice, Leah and another child Ann who was 7.
Yet again, they are surrounded by familiar names. On one side is Jane’s son Thomas Hackett with his wife Jane and one year old son John, lodging with him is William Stokes with his wife Sarah nee Hackett, Jane’s daughter and their son John, aged 3 months. Next along the road is Elizabeth Hopewell with her family. Elizabeth was a widow but we have come across the family before and Elizabeth’s later born son Edward Hopewell (or Brooks or Oakwell which were names he used at various times) who, a few years later , was to marry Jane’s great-niece Phoebe Priest, the granddaughter of David and Ann Priest. And next along, with his family is Henry Taylor who may well be related to John Taylor– yet to be determined. The Taylors are another family who are not just a genealogical rabbit hole, they are a whole genealogical warren! But the pattern is the same. Even as the family spread out from their base at Gadd’s Green, they go only a short distance and even then, live surrounded by family connections.
By 1871, Jane Hackett had become Jane Taylor – yes, another Hill daughter marrying a Taylor… On the 9 July 1865 Jane, aged 56, married John Taylor – or Bridgwater, it says in the marriage record, aged 40, no details given of the groom’s father. The witnesses at the marriage are Jane’s son Thomas Hackett and his wife Jane. Presumably the John Taylor she had been lodging with in 1861. I have Bridgwaters in my family tree but let’s not go there. At least, not at this moment… but I see that Timothy Hill’s mother was a Bridgwater, too. As usual, the more I look at local families the more the Lost Hamlets web continues to expand. By now they were shown as living in Club Buildings and were there also in 1881.
Although John used the name Bridgwater at this marriage, thereafter they used Taylor in all records, including his death and burial. Other researchers on Ancestry show Bridgwater as his birth name which is quite possible, if his mother subsequently married a Taylor and he then used his step-father’s name, this was not uncommon. But I have been unable to find a baptism in the correct period for this John under either name.
Jane and John Hackett’s children
Rebecca 1829-1910
Rebecca was born in 1829 and was baptised at Dudley St Thomas on 16 August 1829. Her father’s occupation was shown as a Collier and his abode as Oldbury, although this might have included areas around Whiteheath. Certainly by 1841 the family were living in Perry’s Lake.
Rebecca married Samuel Barnsley on 24 May 1847 at St Giles, when she was living in Perry’s Lake and he in Spring Row. He was a stone quarry man, as was his father, also Samuel. Samuel had been baptised at Dudley St Thomas on 8 April 1827, the abode for his parents, Samuel and Charlotte Barnsley was shown as Oakham.
Their first daughter Priscilla was born in 1847, followed by nine more children – Sarah (1849), Samuel (1851), Mary Ann (1853), Rebecca (1853), John (1858), Mary J (1860), Lavinia (1862), Annie (1867) and Thomas (1869).
Samuel died and was buried at St Giles on 14 June 1893, aged 66 and of Church Row. Rebecca lived in Rowley for her whole life. She died in 1910 and was buried at St Giles, on 26 July 1910, aged 81, of 39, Hawes Lane.
John Hackett 1831-1909
John was baptised on 24 April 1831 at Dudley St Thomas and in 1841 he was living with his parents and siblings in Perry’s Lake. By 1851 he is shown as a visitor with his sister Rebecca and Samuel Barnsley in Perry’s Lake, aged 20.
On 20 June 1853, at Dudley St Thomas, John married Priscilla Groves, the marriage witnessed by his cousins Eliza Whittall and Joseph Hill. His occupation was shown as a miner. In 1861 they were living in Peartree Street, Old Hill with their daughters Catherine – sometimes Caroline, Ann and Louisa. Their neighbours? Well, I notice that on that one page of the census, with twenty five people listed, there are families named Priest (two families), Groves, Barnsley, and another family of Hacketts. On the previous page are Priests, Willetts, Halls. I think we can assume they were surrounded by kith and kin! A fourth daughter Martha came along in 1862 and a fifth, with the unusual name of Viannah or Vihannah in 1865. Martha and Vihannah were to marry Saunders brothers at a later time.
In 1871, the family are still in Reddall Hill, plus Alice Hackett, who is John’s sister. Although there is a child William, born in 1869, apparently listed as the child of John and Priscilla in this Census, it is my opinion that William is in fact the son of Alice Hackett, John’s sister who is staying with them as she is shown as the head of the sub-household and his name appears as her son below hers in the list. His birth was registered without a Mother’s Maiden Name which indicates that he was illegitimate. In any case, by this time Priscilla was about 50 so the child is unlikely to be hers. In this entry John is listed as Thomas, a coal miner but the remainder of the family is correct, so this must be an error, unless John had become John Thomas – not noted anywhere else.
By 1881, John and Priscilla had moved to Bowling Green, near Netherton – foreign parts, more than two miles from Rowley! Here John was shown as a nail maker but his two daughters Louisa and Martha are chain makers and Vian as a nail maker. In 1891, John and Priscilla were living in Brook Lane, ReddallHill where John had apparently taken employment as a labourer in a Timber Yard. They were shown as lodgers but were living with Alfred and Martha Saunders, Martha being their daughter. Alfred is shown as Arthur in this census but is Alfred in all other records so this appears to be an error, he was also a chain maker, in those few miles from Rowley village, chain making was much in evidence in this area, nail making not appearing on this sheet of the census return.
Priscilla died in 1892 and was buried at St Lukes on 4 August 1892, aged 60 according to the Burial Register which is also the age shown on the death registration. But this is another instance of varying ages in different records. I cannot find any record of baptism for her. But in the 1841 Census she was shown as 15, so could have been up to 19, giving an approximate year of about 1826. In 1851, still living at home with her parents in Plants Green, she was 27, again computing to 1824. In 1861 she was 28(!), in 1871 51(1822), in 1881 61(1820), in 1891she was 69 (1822). So, somewhere between 1822 and 1824 is my best guess which would have made her much nearer to 70 than 60 at the time of her death. But she was several years older than her husband so perhaps she was coy about her age and possibly even her children did not know her true age.
John Hackett in the 1901 Census was with his sister Alice Fellows at 61 Enville Street, Stourbridge, a retired Miner and aged 70. He died in 1909 and was buried at St Luke’s Cradley Heath on 25 March 1909, aged 76 and his abode given as 24 Petford Street.
William Hackett (1833-?)
William was baptised on 15 September 1833 at Dudley St Thomas and is living with his family in Perry’s Lake, in the 1841 Census. In 1851, when his mother was a widow and had moved back to live with her brother, he was lodging with the Griffith family in Perrys Lake and working as a coal miner.
On 21 April 1856 William, son of John Hackett, miner, deceased, had married Matilda Ennis, daughter of Benjamin Ennis, at Dudley St Thomas and in 1861 they were living in Blackheath, with George (7), Elizabeth (4), and John, (1 month).
Elizabeth had been baptised at St Giles on 11 October 1857, I cannot find a baptism for John.
George Henry Ennis, son of Matilda Ennis, according to the record of his baptism at Dudley on 3 September 1854, had been born on 17th January 1853 so William was probably not his father, although it appears that George used the name Hackett thereafter.
It appears from a newspaper article I found that several of Matilda’s children died in early infancy, at least one of them of neglect and it also appears that by 1864 Matilda and William were separated. Matilda goes on to marry twice more before the 1871 Census, and in 1881 she was living with her third husband in Smethwick. That husband remarried in Derby in the last quarter of 1886 and I found that Matilda had died there, of diabetes, aged 51. I may do a separate piece about Matilda as her life was so complicated.
William is also elusive after this point. I cannot find William after 1861, but nor can I find a death for him. The situation with Matilda must have been deeply humiliating and the loss of several children with possible implications of neglect must have been utterly heart-breaking for him, coming as he did from a family where children, whatever their birth circumstances, seem to have been cherished and welcomed.
Perhaps William moved away, perhaps he emigrated, perhaps he simply chose to disappear – it is impossible to know but it is a sad story.
Thomas Hackett (1836-1919)
Thomas was baptised at Rowley Regis on 28 August 1836 and in 1841 he was in Perry’s Lake with his family. In 1851 they were in Gadd’s Green.
On 29 August 1859, Thomas married Sarah Jane Whittall, daughter of Samuel and Mary Whittall (nee Hipkiss) of Portway and in 1861 they and their one year old son John were living in Hawes Lane, (possibly Club Buildings although the census does not specify this), part of that little group of Hacketts, Taylors and Hopewells we have already noted in connection with Thomas’s mother Jane.
By the time of the 1871Census Thomas and Sarah Jane had joined other relatives in Barrow-in-Furness where they were living, along with other Black Country furnacemen, amongst a whole community who these pages of the census show were mainly drawn from Staffordshire and Worcestershire – later censuses show that Thomas was working at the Bessemer Steel Works who obviously recruited workers from the many blast furnaces in the Black Country.
Some statistics
In his book The Little Book of the Black Country[i]Michael Pearson gives some interesting numbers of industry in the Black Country.
In 1800 there were 160 collieries, producing 500,000 tons per annum.
By 1868, there were 540 collieries, producing 10,206,000 tons per annum.
In 1796 there were 14 blast furnaces, by 1806 there were 42.
By 1868, there were 167 and iron production ran at 855,000 tons of finished product from 2,100 puddling furnaces.
20,000 people were employed in the Black Country Iron Trade which had doubled in 68 years. So there was plenty of experience for Barrow-in-Furness to call on.
By 1860, within five miles of Dudley, there were:
44 pits
181 blast furnaces
118 iron works
79 rolling mills
1,500 puddling furnaces.
No wonder the Black Country was black!
But although these numbers obviously declined and the heavy industry now disappeared I can remember looking out from the Grammar School on Hawes Lane in the winter and seeing the glow of numerous furnaces even in the early 1960s. Today the closure of some of the last remaining blast furnaces in the country has just been narrowly averted – what a change. So many skills, so much experience gone – which can probably never be recovered. Let’s hope we don’t suddenly need to have a steel industry again.
Steel Working in Barrow-in-Furness
The Morecombe Bay Partnership say the following about the Iron Works there:
“In 1859 Schneider, Hannay and Company established the iron works in Hindpool, marking the beginning of what would be the largest iron and steel works in the world. Twelve blast furnaces were built in the 1860s producing 5000 to 5550 tones of iron each week. In 1866 18 Bessemer convertors started making steel from the iron smelted at the iron works. By 1903 7000 tons of steel was produced a week. A large amount of the steel was used to make rails for railways all over the world. From 1962 no new steel was made, instead scrap was melted to produce steel. The steel works became part of British Steel in 1964 and the works closed in 1983. All that is left is the slag banks which have now been landscaped and opened from walkers.”[ii]
By 1871 Thomas and Sarah Jane had had four children – John (1860-), Mary Jane (1867- born in Rowley), Alice (1869 – born in Barrow), and Eliza (1870). They went on to have Ellen (1873), Thomas (1875), Sarah (1876), Louise (1878), Rose (1880), and Frederick (1882), ten in all. And boarding with them in the same house in 1871 were Sarah Jane’s brother Reuben Whithall (24), plus Benjamin Tibbetts (22), Samuel Ellis (18) (from a distant part of the country called Wednesbury so not a familiar name!), and one other Rowley man whose name I cannot read, also 18. And one 11 year old servant girl. Imagine the washing and cooking required to look after three children under five and those five men working in hot filthy conditions.
Thomas and Sarah stayed in Barrow-in-Furness for the rest of their lives, Sarah appears to have died between the 1891 census when she was still in Barrow, listed as a grocer at 2 Lincoln Street, with her family and 1901 when Thomas is listed with a different wife.
This article in the Barrow Herald, dated 14 September 1895, seems to indicate that Sarah was still alive and well and still in Barrow in 1895 but in Newbarns, not Lincoln Street. I cannot find a death registration or a burial for a Sarah Hackett of the right age in the years between 1891 and 1901. Had Thomas and Sarah separated?
Copyright BNLibrary.
Thomas appears to have married again, to Alice Standbridge in Coventry in 1897. Alice’s initials appear differently in different records so it has not been possible to find her before the marriage to Thomas.
Thomas died in Barrow in January 1919, a few years after Alice. I cannot trace a burial for Sarah Jane but Thomas and Alice were buried in the same grave so what happened to Sarah is something of a mystery.
Jane Hackett (1839-1907)
Jane was baptised on 14 April 1939 at St Giles, Rowley Regis. She was at home with her family in 1841 and 1851. In 1861, there is a Jane Hackett, aged 23 and born in Rowley, living as a lodger in Cherry Orchard, Old Hill, with William Chapman and his family. Also lodging with the Chapmans is a miner named Thomas Bagley, aged 24 born in Dudley. I have no real evidence that this is the correct Jane but she is the only single Jane Hackett of the correct age in the area. Jane did not die or marry between 1851 and 1861, and I cannot find her living with any of her family so it is probable that this is her.
In 1861 Jane had a daughter Ann, followed by George in 1864, Maria in 1867, William in 1869, Sarah in 1874, and Jane in 1876. During the whole of this time Jane Hackett was apparently a ‘lodger’ in the household of Thomas Bagley, the one who had also been lodging in the same house as Jane in 1861. The births of all of these children were registered as illegitimate. Jane is shown as Hackett and ‘boarder’ in 1871 and Bagley in later censuses and the children were shown as the children of Thomas Bagley but listed as Hackett. Until 1881 when Jane is shown as the wife of Thomas Bagley and all the children are shown as his children and listed as Bagley, the name most of them appeared to have used. So it seems extremely likely that Thomas Bagley was the father of them all.
In 1880 a last child was born but this one, Thomas, was registered as Bagley with a MMN of Hackett and was always known as Bagley. This might be taken to imply that Thomas Bagley and Jane Hackett had married by this time. However, I cannot find a marriage for Jane Hackett and Thomas Bagley at any time anywhere in the GRO records.
In 1901 Jane can be found in Harborne, listed as Jane Bagley, widow, visiting her married daughter Maria.
Jane died and her death was registered as that of Jane Bagley aged 69, of Elbow Street, Old Hill and she was buried as Jane Bagley in St Giles on 15 May 1907. One can, of course, in law, call oneself any name one likes, providing we do not do so to deceive and it appears that for nearly forty years Jane was to all intents and purposes, the wife of Thomas Bagley. There is no obvious reason why they did not marry, although it seems likely that Thomas was himself illegitimate so perhaps he saw no need. Or perhaps he had a previous wife living, although he described himself in censuses as unmarried and I cannot find such a marriage. We shall never know.
Sarah Hackett (1840-1865)
Sarah was baptised at St Giles, Rowley Regis on 8 Jun 1840.
On 19 September 1859 Sarah married William Stokes at Halesowen and in the 1861 Census she and William and their son John, aged 3 months are living with Sarah’s brother ThomasHackett in Hawes Lane, next to Sarah’s mother Jane. In 1864 they had a daughter Ann but Sarah died on 30 August 1865, of Typhoid Fever, having been ill for three weeks. She was buried at St Giles aged 26, on 3 September 1865.
It is possible that John was the baby John Stokes of the Village, aged 11 weeks who was buried at St Giles on 9 May 1861 .There were three John Stokes born in the first quarter of the Dudley RD but this is the only baby of that name buried in 1861 in the area around Rowley which does seem a bit of a coincidence. I cannot find John with his father after that date. Nor can I find William Stokes with Ann in the next census, nor in fact William himself with any certainty. So the whole family seems to have disappeared, sadly. It is possible that they moved to a distant area but I cannot find them, if they did.
Joseph Hackett (1841-1925)
Joseph was a dream to research, he was where I expected him to be, when I expected him to be, no mysteries, no disappearances, such a pleasure!
Joseph was baptised on 20 November 1842 at St Giles. Born a few months too late for the 1841 Census, he was living with his mother in the 1851 and 1861 censuses. On 16 July 1865 Joseph married Sarah Ann Perry at St Giles, Rowley Regis. Sarah’s family lived in Rowley village, with their eleven children, next to the Ring of Bells pub which was opposite the parish church (as you might guess from the name of the pub!).
Sarah had an illegitimate daughter Sarah Jane in 1864 and she lived thereafter as their daughter and was listed as Hackett in censuses. However, when Sarah Jane married in 1895, she used the name Perry, not Hackett and gave no details of her father so it seems that Joseph was not her father.
Joseph and Sarah lived on Dudley Road, Cock Green for the rest of their lives and Joseph worked as a coal miner all of his life. In 1911, aged 68, he was still working as a miner/loader (underground) although by 1921 – when he was 79 and six months, he was finally described in the census as retired. The ‘old age pension’ had been introduced on 1 January 1909 with a non-contributory pension of 5 shillings (25p) per week to individuals aged 70 or over, a significant step in providing financial security for the elderly.
They had fourteen children, according to the 1911 Census, although I can only find birth registrations for thirteen, including Sarah Jane. Of these two had died so twelve survived. If a child was born dead that birth would not have been registered but no doubt the couple would have counted such a child as one of their own which may account for the different number. So, there came Hannah in 1866, Phebe in 1867, Thomas in 1868, Joseph in 1870, Polly in 1872, Harriet in 1875, John in 1877 who died in 1878, Benjamin in 1879, Selina in 1882, Jim in 1885 and Clara in 1889.
Sarah died in 1924, and was buried at St Giles on 26 August, aged 80. They had been married for 59 years. Joseph followed barely six months later and was buried at St Giles on 18 April 1925, aged 83 and of Dudley Road where they had lived all their married life.
Another fourteen grandchildren for John and Jane Hackett, most of whom appear to have stayed in the Rowley area.
Alice Hackett (1843-1924)
Alice was baptised on 16 July 1843 at St Giles, Rowley Regis. In 1851 and 1861 she was living with her mother, in Gadd’s Green and then Hawes Lane. In 1869, it appears that Alice had a son William, as he is listed after her in Reddall Hill, where she was lodging with her older brother John and his family. I think that this is the William Hacket, aged 2, of the village who was buried at St Giles on 14 Jun 1872 as I cannot find this William after that date and he is certainly not living with his mother at any later points of record.
On 14 October 1872, Alice married Noah Fellows who was a maltster and in 1881 they were living with her mother and Jane’s new husband John Taylor in Hawes Lane, together with their children John Thomas (1873), Ruth (1875), Noah (1877) and Alice (1879). Another son Joseph was born in 1882 and William in 1885.
Noah Fellows, you think – well, that’s a distinctive name, should be easy to track him. Except that there were three Noah Fellows born, one in the September quarter of 1846 in the Dudley RD, one in the following quarter in the Stourbridge RD and one in Shifnal in Shropshire in June 1848. I’m sure they are all closely related and in the same family at some point but fortunately in censuses, the two I am interested in each usually say where they were born – in Cradley or in West Bromwich. Alice married the Noah who was born in Cradley and at a later stage they moved back to Cradley, and then to Wolleston.
Noah died in 1914. Alice died in January 1924, in Stourbridge. Their children seem to have settled slightly further afield than most of the Hill decendants, settling either in the Stourbridge area, where Noah’s family were from, or in Birmingham.
Leah Hackett (1844-1864)
Leah was baptised on 26 January 1845 at St Giles. In 1851 she was living with her mother in Gadd’s Green in her uncle Joseph’s household. In 1861 she was again, aged 16, with her mother in Hawes Lane where her mother was lodging with John Taylor.
In the last quarter of 1862, Leah married Titus Hadley somewhere in the Dudley RD. Unfortunately I cannot find any details of where this marriage took place or exactly when. Both of these parties have unusual names and both appear to be the only ones born in the relevant period so it would look easy to trace them. It ain’t necessarily so…
I was able to find two men named Titus Hadley, in the 1861 Census, one born in 1842, and the other in 1845. One of these, Thomas Titus Hadley, was living with his parents and family in Shepherd’s Fold in Blackheath. The other, born in Causeway Green, off Penncrickett Lane, was living in Club Buildings with his grandmother Martha Westwood, aunt Phoebe Westwood and sister Martha Hadley. This seems the likely candidate to me, given the, by now, frequently evidenced tendency of local people in this area to marry their neighbours. Leah was just along the road in Hawes Lane at this time.
Which of these is the Titus Hadley referred to in this press cutting, I am not sure.
Copyright: BNLibrary
It coincides almost exactly with the Rowley Titus’s later marriage to Emma after Leah’s death, the paternity hearing being reported in September 1865 and Titus married Emma in October 1865 which may or may not be relevant. Or this may have been the other Titus Hadley.
It seems likely that Titus and LeahHadley were the parents of Samuel Hadley, whose birth was registered in the first quarter of 1864 and who was buried on 21 July 1864 at St Giles, aged 6 months and of Club Buildings.
Leah died and was buried on 4 April 1864, aged 21 (according to the Burial Register entry although her death registration has her age as 19 – let’s say she was about 20… ), three months before baby Samuel.
There were actually three male children born to Hadley/Hackett parents in just three years – John in 1862, Samuel in early 1864 and William in the last quarter of 1864. (Another child, Edward was born to this combination in 1866 when Leah had been dead for two years. So there must have been another Hadley/Hackett marriage in the village. I will probably find it at some point.) So William cannot have been their child but John possibly could. I cannot tell unless I buy the birth certificates, a temptation I am currently resisting. However, I cannot find baptisms for John or Samuel, nor a burial for John so these are unknowns at present. Later Hadleys were certainly active Methodists so it is possible that babies were baptised in the Methodist tradition, for which records are patchy at this period.
After Leah’s death, Titus re-married to Emma Whithall in October 1865 at Halesowen, (who was on the same page in the 1861 census, living with her father William in Club Buildings.) They had four sons, Joseph, Titus, Alfred and Jason and lived in Birmingham Road and Station Road, Blackheath until Titus’s death. He was buried on 6 May 1922 in St Giles, aged 81.
So these were the nine children of John and Jane Hackett, nee Hill.
Ann Hackett 1854-1923
And then there was Ann Hackett, the daughter apparently born to the widowed Jane Hackett on 7 February 1854 in Rowley village, father unknown. Oddly, this Ann seems to have been baptised as the daughter of Jane Hackett of the village, but not until 2 Mar 1868, when she would have been fourteen. In 1861 and in 1871, Ann is living with her mother and step-father.
I do wonder whether Ann was actually the daughter of Jane Hackett’s daughter Jane. Jane Hackett, nee Hill would have been 45 in 1854, her daughter Jane would have been 15 so either would be possible. There is no way of telling from the birth certificate , it merely says Jane Hackett as the mother. However, in the censuses, Jane Hackett Senior describes Ann as her daughter and I have left her as that in the family tree. It was not unusual for parents to raise a grandchild, particularly one born illegitimately to a young girl so it does seem possible to me. The only thing which gives me pause is that Jane named her own first-born daughter of her marriage, in 1861, Ann. Although that was also the name of her husband’s mother so he could have decided that.
In 1873, Ann Hackett married Benjamin Tibbetts in the Ulverston Registration District, presumably the same Benjamin Tibbetts who had been lodging with Ann’s half brother (or uncle!) Thomas in Barrow-in-Furness in the 1871 Census and presumably they married in Barrow.
Elizabeth was the first child born to Benjamin and Ann, she was born in 1874 in Barrow-in-Furness. But by 1876, when their second daughter Annie was born they were back in Rowley Regis, living in Hawes Lane in the 1881 Census. The Tibbetts family lived in Hawes Lane until by 1901 they were at 70 Rowley Village. Later children were William Benjamin (1882), Jane (1883-1890), Mary (1886), JohnThomas (1888), Harry (1890), George Frederick (1894) and Lucy (1902).
In the 1911 Census, which asks how many children were born alive in the present marriage and whether they were still alive, Ann says that there were thirteen children, of whom 7 were alive. I can only find birth registrations for nine, however but spelling errors in one or other of the surnames might have prevented me from finding the others.
In 1821, Ann was still living in 7 Hawes Lane and was recorded as a “Midwife Certificated”, so apparently still working at 68 years and 4 months. No doubt she would have been a familiar figure in the local community. By 1821 Annie was lised as a widow and there is a death registration for a Benjamin Tibbetts in the last quarter of 1915 which is for someone of the correct age; however, I cannot find a burial for him. He had worked as a labourer at the quarry for the whole of his working life in Rowley, perhaps he is one of those anonymous faces we see in old photographs of quarry workers.
Annie died on 4 Nov 1923 and was buried at St Giles on the 8th November, aged 70.
Finally…
John Taylor, or Bridgwater, second husband of Jane,died in 1882 aged 55 and was buried at St Giles on 25th April.
Jane Taylor, previously Hackett, nee Hill of Club Buildings, survived him by four years and died in 1886, aged 77 and was buried at St Giles on 21 July 1886.
Jane Taylor, nee Hill, had at least 9, probably 10 children and they in turn added at least 69 great-grandchildren to Timothy and Maria Hill’s dynasty.
Only two more of Timothy and Maria’s children to come in the next instalment, with possibly another diversion en route!
[i] The Little Book of the Black Country by Michael Pearson, The History Press. ISBN 978 0 7524 8783 0
“On Sunday afternoon the annual friendly societies’ Sunday service, on behalf of the hospitals, was held in a field at the back of Mountford House, Siviters Lane, Rowley, kindly lent for the occasion by Dr. J. G. Beasley. The members of various societies met at their headquarters, and were formed into a procession as below.
The Blackheath Village Band started from the WHEAT SHEAF INN, Turners Hill at one o’clock, with the Church of England Friendly Society, and proceeded through Portway and Perrys Lake, calling at the BULLS HEAD INN for the Sick Club, at the WARD ARMS INN for Court Foresters’ Pride, at the KINGS ARMS INN for Lodge Working Man’s Friend. It then proceeded by way of Ross, Holly Road, Tump Road, and John Street, to the GEORGE AND DRAGON Ground.
The Woodgate Brass Band had in the meantime covered its route from the OLD BUSH INN, Powke Lane, with Court Little Band of Hope, calling at the MALT SHOVEL INN for Lodge Lily of the Valley, the VINE INN for Court Mistletoe Bough, proceeding along Station Road to the RAILWAY INN for Court Britannia’s Pride, thence through Halesowen Street, Tump Road, and Hackett Street, meeting the other Courts at the GEORGE AND DRAGON Ground.
A united procession was then formed, and marched to Siviters Lane, reaching the ground at three o’clock. The proceedings opened with the hymn ‘All people that on earth do dwell,’ after which the Chairman (Mr. E. Pewtress, CC) delivered a short address.
The Rev. C. W. Barnard, MA, Rector of Kings Norton, then addressed the meeting, after which the hymn ‘Lead, kindly light,’ was sung. Addresses were also delivered by the Revs. W. Hall and N. Haigh, of Blackheath.
At the close a collection was taken on behalf of the Dudley Dispensary and Birmingham Eye Hospital. It amounted to £11 9s 5d.”
When I came across this article in the local paper, I was interested that there were so many active friendly societies in the area so I found out a bit more about them. The internet is my friend…!
Friendly societies, in those days before general employment benefits and social security, were mutual aid societies which provided social and financial support to their members when they were affected by illness, unemployment or death, when widows were supported. Originally they were associated with trade guilds but later became independent organisations. They also organised social events such as the one above which must have been quite a colourful sight. I suspect most of the societies would have had their own banners and there was probably some friendly rivalry, too. Like Building Societies – such as our very own Rowley Regis Building Club which built the Club Buildings, these societies mushroomed during the late 18th and 19th century.
Many of our forebears in this area and period would have lived in dread of ending up ‘on the parish’ or, even worse, in the Workhouse, being ill or injured and unable to support their family or having a ‘Pauper’s funeral’. Membership of a Friendly Society offered some hope of avoiding these fates.
There were thousands of different friendly societies, of different sizes and not all of long duration. Smaller and early societies could struggle to calculate their insurance risks fully and to build up sufficient reserves. Events such as epidemics of infectious disease or mass unemployment could lead to the closure of such societies and the loss of members’ contributions which must have caused great dismay.
There were three main types: trade societies, local societies and interest-group societies. Some ‘Orders’ such as the Ancient Order of Foresters, which started in Yorkshire, opened branches in towns and villages across the country which allowed members to move their membership if they moved for work and also enabled risk to be spread, such as if a large employer closed suddenly. These branches were usually known as Lodges but the Foresters called them Courts and there are several Courts mentioned in the list in the article. Some local friendly societies still exist and others moved into more formal life insurance.
To become a member, men (women were not admitted, at least until the late 1800s) had to formally apply, be proposed by an existing member who would propose them and another who would second them. They had to complete declarations about health, including whether any near relatives had died of tuberculosis or if they had had certain other diseases, such as gout, rheumatism, smallpox, etc. The club doctor would also examine candidates and admission depended on his approval, all of this to limit calls on club funds arising from chronic illness. Some societies only admitted members with a weekly wage of at least 22 shillings and many trades were excluded as “any other occupation that the committee may conceive dangerous or injurious to health”. It seems to me that most of the occupations of local residents in Rowley came under this last definition but nevertheless there were clearly enough members to support a number of local societies.
I would hazard a guess that most of the societies listed in the article were, apart from the Church of England Friendly Society, fairly small local organisations. The six main large societies were the Royal Standard, the United Kingdom, the United Patriots, the London Friendly, the Royal Oak and the Hearts of Oak. None of these was mentioned in the description of the march but probably the poor wages of nail makers working from home and the hazardous working conditions in quarries, mines and foundries precluded many local people from membership, even if they could afford the contributions but smaller local societies were perhaps more flexible.
In the late 1800s clubs began to be set up exclusively for women who earned an income independent of their husbands. These clubs paid out on confinement with a child but again strict rules were set out and unmarried mothers were usually excluded.
Legislation
The administration of these friendly societies was regulated through legislation, including the Registration of Friendly Societies Act 1793 and the Friendly Societies Act 1855 which established a Register of such societies. More legislation in 1875 was aimed at protecting the members and ensuring the funds were kept safe. This latter legislation defined the purposes of friendly societies as “the relief or maintenance of the members, their husbands, wives, children, fathers, mothers, brothers or sisters, nephews or nieces or wards, being orphaned, during sickness or other infirmity, whether bodily or mental, in old age (which shall mean any age after 50), or in widowhood, or for the relief of the orphan children of members during minority.”
Each month members paid into the Society, often at a meeting in a pub and in return, payments from the funds were made to ill members and widows. Some societies had initiation and other ceremonies, certificates, passwords and handshakes, – which only paid up members would know – rituals, oaths, parades and feasting, such as the one described in this article, even costumes. Annual feasts were held with processions, banners and dinners, some of which may have got a little over-exuberant. Membership must have brought a real sense of belonging to a community, of brothers, of people who looked out for you. Some societies had funeral processions and graveside duties. To try to protect their funds, many societies had cash boxes with three locks and three keyholders to prevent theft by officials of the society.
And membership, based usually on a subscription basis, provided sickness or injury benefit or contributions to funeral expenses. Some, such as Oddfellows, established in 1810 and still going, had a surgeon at every lodge or branch, who members had access to. Others, like the Rechabites which I have mentioned before, as my mother was a member, were more concerned with alcohol avoidance and ‘wholesome living’. And churches, chapels, businesses and other bodies began to run their own societies. Some societies donated to charities, for hospital beds, convalescent homes and even lifeboats. There were annual conferences, often held at the seaside, giving men the opportunity to take their part in democratic decisions, even before many of them had a vote in ordinary politics. They gave a sense of belonging and community.
However, the introduction of Lloyd George’s National Health Insurance Act in 1911 led initially to a further growth in membership as ‘state members’ were created, as the Act was largely administered through friendly societies and insurance companies. But this meant that the social side became less important and women, in particular, often did not care to go to meetings in pubs, preferring to pay their dues to the “man from the Pru” on his house visits. The loss of thousands of members in WW1 was also damaging for many societies.
By 1945, when the NHS was being set up, the membership of the friendly societies was estimated at 8,500,000, a significant proportion of the population. One estimate is that about 80% of male workers were members. However, the creation of the NHS, grants for funeral costs and changes to National Insurance took many of the functions of the societies away and led to many closures.
Since reading about this, I can remember my father being offered membership of what must have been such a society in the 1950s, perhaps the Order of the Buffalos, but I can remember my parents being somewhat puzzled about what this society was for and why he had been invited to join. And who had put his name forward? He declined in the end, possibly because he suffered chronic ill health and could have ill afforded the membership fees. Perhaps by then, the membership was becoming more of a social commitment and the requirements as to health less stringent as most people received treatment under the NHS.
I found this subject very interesting and enjoyed finding out more about it. I would have loved to see the processions with their bands and banners and no doubt excited children, and local people gathering to watch. Although it is difficult to imagine it now, before the days of radio and television, many people learned to play instruments and to sing to amuse themselves and bands, often sponsored by the big employers, provided companionship and pride and a sense of belonging – they often provided instruments, too and to this day brass bands encourage junior musicians to belong and often have strong family involvement. So I would imagine there could well be numerous local bands who could be called upon to lead processions.
Copyright Anthony Page.
This photograph from Anthony Page’s collection shows the Blackheath Town Band at a somewhat later date, perhaps the 1930s. But their uniforms were probably the same and one or two of the members may even have played for Hospital Sundays!
There were traditional gathering places, too. Apparently the Hackett family who kept the George and Dragon had a field at the back (mentioned in the article above) where fairs and gatherings were held and the frontage of the George and Dragon remained a stopping place for processions until within living memory. I can picture the bands playing and puffing their way up Ross, leading the procession to Siviter’s Lane from the George and Dragon! And although a whole new housing estate was built in the area between the George and Dragon and Birmingham Road in the 1920s and 30s, this spot also was not very far from Britannia Park and the fields which were there before the park was laid out.
The only processions I can remember in the 1950s were the Whit Sunday Processions which were organised by the churches around Blackheath and ended up in Britannia Park, with games and sandwiches and cakes for tea (all in a brown paper bag for each child, if memory serves!) with orange squash or cups of tea for everyone. This spot would, of course, be just below the grounds of Mountford House and may even have been the very same field that was used then – a traditional gathering spot for celebrations!
More reading:
‘Who do you think you are?’ Magazine has an excellent article here:
rowleyregislosthamlets.co.uk 